Hospitals. Fire departments. Schools. Even roads and highways. The
census can shape many different aspects of your community. Each year,
the results help determine how more than $675 billion in federal funding
is distributed to states and communities.
As mandated by the U.S. Constitution, our nation gets just one chance each decade to count its population. The U.S. has counted its population every 10 years since
1790. The U.S. census counts every resident in the United States. It is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution and takes place every 10 years. The data collected by the census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives (a process called apportionment) and is also used to distribute billions in federal funds to local communities. Learn more at
2020Census.gov.
