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Here are the latest updates to the HTC 2020 map to help you plan your Get Out the Count campaigns:
A comprehensive map of the Census Bureau's 2020 contact strategies
On Nov. 18, 2019 the Census Bureau announced the details of the different types of mailings they will send to households to invite participation in the 2020 census.
We have combined this information with non-mailing contact strategies and added this to the HTC 2020 map.
We have also analyzed the contact strategy patterns by state, available at our Center for Urban Research website with a map highlighting the patterns and and an Excel file based on data provided by the Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau also has an online Mail Contact Strategies Map and a separate online Type of Enumeration Area Viewer.
Depending where you live, you may receive a mailed invitation for the 2020 Census with a unique ID to respond online or by phone (an "Internet First" mailing). Or you may receive a paper version of the census questionnaire that you can mail back to the Bureau (this is an "Internet Choice" mailing because it will include the paper questionnaire plus instructions for responding online). Some of these areas may receive a bilingual mailing in Spanish and English. And if you do not respond to any of these mailed invitations, the Bureau will mail you additional reminders, eventually sending you a paper questionnaire to fill out and mail back.
The Census Bureau expects to send mailings to 95% of the nation's housing units. But in some communities, many — if not most — households will not receive a mailed invitation. Instead they either will receive hand-delivered census packets from the Census Bureau or will be counted directly in-person. The Census Bureau published information separately, earlier this year, on these areas that will not receive Census 2020 mailings.
Now, the information on all the different 2020 Census contact techniques is combined in one place at our HTC 2020 map, so census stakeholders can more easily inform local residents about what to expect when the 2020 decennial census takes place. Below we've provided some example links to the map with this new comprehensive information. You can also search for locations at the HTC 2020 map by street address or any other geographic area to quickly zoom in to your location of interest.
 For example, in Tract 13 in Lexington, Kentucky (click the first image to view the interactive map), all households will receive Internet Choice letters by mail in English. In 2010, only two-thirds of this tract's households responded to the census mailing at the time (scroll down at the left-hand panel at the map), meaning the remaining households had to be counted in-person. This tract is one of the hardest to count in the country.
The Census Bureau wants to make it easier for people in tracts such as this one to respond to the 2020 census by mailing a paper questionnaire as well as instructions for filling out the form online. In this tract as recently as 2017, 42% of its households had no home internet; almost 40% of the tract's residents have incomes below the poverty level; and two-thirds of its housing is renter-occupied.
In other tracts, such as Tract 62.02 in Kern County, CA (highlighted below) households will receive their invitations to participate in the 2020 census in different ways.
 Most households (92%) in this tract will receive bilingual Internet Choice letters (including the paper questionnaire) by mail in Spanish & English. The remaining 8% will receive hand-delivered census packets which will also include a paper questionnaire as well as instructions for completing the form online.
Remember: it is critically important that households respond to these contacts from the Census Bureau and fill out the census questionnaire when they receive it (or receive access to it online). Self-responding to the census is the most cost-effective and accurate way for the Bureau to count the population.
If a householder does not respond to any of these contacts by the Census Bureau and does not fill out the census questionnaire on their own, the Bureau still has the responsibility (it's in the Constitution) to count them. From spring through summer 2020, hundreds of thousands of census enumerators will visit households across the country that have not self-responded in order to count them in person. This is called nonresponse followup.
But going door-to-door is expensive and challenging. Areas with large shares of non-responding households are especially hard-to-count, posing the greatest risk that communities will be undercounted and lose out on their fair share of federal funding, political representation, and local services.
The HTC 2020 map in action
Census stakeholders continue to put the HTC 2020 map to good use. Below are some recent examples, along with media reports highlighting the map:
- This month the Census Counts 2020 campaign launched its online Get Out the Count Toolkit to provide community-based organizations, public officials, & other key stakeholders with information on the importance of the 2020 Census and tools to help ensure the census is fair and accurate. The toolkit includes links to the HTC 2020 map, including state-by-state resources such as this page for Wisconsin with state contacts and key facts.
- The Intelligencer/News-Register in Wheeling, West Virginia prominently featured a statewide version of the HTC map in their article this week titled West Virginia Prepares for 2020 Census.
- In Texas, several efforts are underway to ensure a fair and accurate census despite no action by the state government to establish a complete count committee or provide funding for census outreach efforts. We have highlighted several of these examples in earlier email updates. Recent examples that leverage the HTC 2020 map include:
- Texas Counts, a new statewide collaborative effort to engage cross-sector leaders and organizations to leverage, amplify, and share resources to promote the 2020 Census. The Texas Counts website highlights the HTC map as a resource on its 2020 Census Challenges page.
- Texas Counts is also coordinating a "pooled fund" initiative to support organizations that will be engaging in get-out-the-count activities targeting hard-to-count populations in Texas. Grants are between $15,000 and $100,000. (Deadline: rolling through January 31, 2020)
- The City of Austin, TX has partnered with Travis County to form a Complete Count Committee, highlighting statistics from the HTC map about the challenges to the 2020 count in and around Austin. The Statesman reported on this important effort in September.
- Faith in Public Life - a national movement of clergy and faith leaders focused on advancing just policies at the state and federal level - has established a Census 2020 project, including a mini-grant program leveraging the HTC map to support faith-based organizations and houses of worship engaging hard to count communities.
- The University of Mississippi's Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning is working to ensure that schools and early care and education programs can assist families in completing the 2020 Census. A recent article about the effort notes that "the Hard to Count resource is extremely helpful in locating the most difficult geographic regions of our state."
- An article this month in Education Week notes that students in Kentucky are learning about the census and focusing on getting out the count in hard to count areas. The article explains that "[g]etting an accurate head count is crucial for Knott County. It’s part of a cluster of eastern Kentucky counties that the U.S. Census Bureau designates as ‘hard to count’ because of a variety of cultural and economic factors."
- As part of the effort by libraries across the country to inform people about the importance of the census, the State Library of Ohio devotes a section of its website to resources and related material about the Census, with a prominent link to the HTC 2020 map.
- Finally, WABE.org (Atlanta's public radio station) published a helpful explainer article last month titled What You Need To Know About The 2020 Census In Georgia with several links to the HTC map.
Links to earlier updates
The HTC 2020 map is a work in progress. Other recent updates and enhancements are described here:
- October 2019: Updates to TEA designations; the latest examples of groups using the HTC map across the country; enhancing the HTC metrics with the Census Bureau's low response score, the Urban Institute's projections of undercount by state; & more.
- August 2019: In-Field Address Canvassing areas & stats on the map; organizations that are using the HTC map for local grant assistance; new examples of linking to and/or embedding the HTC map.
- July 2019: new feature to highlight tracts based on share of households without internet access; a list of other census maps nationwide, and more.
- June 2019: Census contacts by state/county; census tract search feature.
- April 2019: customized printing, data downloads, and more.
- March 2019: mapping Type of Enumeration Areas (TEA) and Area Census Offices (ACOs)
- January 2019: new ACS data for the 2013-17 period (including internet access), new legislative info, public library locations, and tribal lands added to the map.
If you haven't signed up for our HTC 2020 map updates, please do so here.
We look forward to hearing your suggestions for improving the map. Please contact the Mapping Service at the CUNY Graduate Center with your feedback.
Thanks!
The HTC 2020 map was launched in October 2017 in collaboration with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights with initial and ongoing support from the 2020 Census Project.
If you need a bit of inspiration, you can see what other MailChimp users are doing, or learn about email design and blaze your own trail.
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