The following is a cross-post from the U.S. Census Bureau

Right now, thousands of census takers across the United States are knocking on doors and calling households that have not yet filled out their 2020 Census questionnaire. We are in the final outreach stage of this massive effort to count everyone who still has not responded on their own. Dedicated census staff equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE), are working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to make sure we count all those who remain uncounted. 

Participating in the decennial census is not only a constitutional duty, but also one of the most consequential tasks we collectively do as a nation. And since it only happens once every 10 years, we have to get it right. As of September 1, 2020, over 84.1 percent of the nation’s housing units have been counted. Check out census.gov for daily completion rates by state. Recently, Idaho and West Virginia were leading the nation in highest completion rates.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made our mission even more challenging – but we are determined to ensure a complete and accurate count and deliver the results to the President by our statutory deadline of December 31, 2020. Our updated 2020 Census Operational Plan shows some of the ways we have adapted our operations to stay on course, including:

• Continuing to hire people to maximize “boots on the ground.”
• Providing financial incentives to census takers to work additional hours.
• Calling households directly to collect questionnaire information.
•  Offering Mobile Questionnaire Assistance ― designed to help people respond to the census at public locations like grocery stores, pharmacies, and low responding areas.
• Mailing an additional paper questionnaire to low-responding areas.
• Emailing households in low-responding areas.
• Expanding our advertising campaign to encourage response, with 45 non-English languages receiving some level of paid support.
• Working with partners across the country to boost response, especially in undercounted areas.

For those who have already filled out the 2020 Census questionnaire, thank you for taking part. But don’t forget that you still have a role to play – encouraging your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and everyone else in your social network to complete their 2020 Census questionnaire online, by phone, or by mail and cooperate with census takers who may come calling.

Our census takers will be knocking on doors until September 30. This is the last stretch to collect data before we begin our tabulation process. Thanks to our dedicated staff and the public’s support, I believe we can deliver a complete and accurate census.

View a video message from Director Dillingham about the final stretch of the 2020 Census.