August 2019 updates for the Census 2020 Hard to Count map

Here are the latest updates to the HTC 2020 map as a resource for your reporting on the 2020 Census.

In-Field Address Canvassing

Between now and October 2019, the Census Bureau will conduct its first major field operation for the 2020 Census. Bureau staff — known as listers — will visit selected areas across the country to confirm local street addresses in advance of the actual census enumeration next year.

This operation is called In-Field Address Canvassing and we've added information about it at the HTC 2020 map, thanks to data provided by the Census Bureau. In the image below focused on tract 101.02 in Dallas, TX, for example, Bureau listers will canvass the areas highlighted in green.

In past censuses, Bureau staff canvassed every street & road in the country to confirm and update the master address list before the count started. For 2020, the Bureau is using aerial imagery and local & commercial databases to update the address list "In-Office" for about 65% of the nation's homes. That's why only certain areas — in some cases just individual blocks — are highlighted on the map.

For local groups working on census issues, the mapped info shows where Census Bureau staff will be in your neighborhoods so Complete Count Committees and others can inform residents. The Bureau has also alerted other key partners to help make the canvassing operation a success, such as local police departments (see these tweets by the PDs in Wilmette, IL & Harrisonville, MO) and the media (the Bureau will hold an online news briefing about Address Canvassing later in August).

The Bureau has also posted a YouTube video about the canvassing operation, and has created a separate online map focused on Address Canvassing. (Although the Bureau's map doesn't have a location search feature, you can use the HTC 2020 map to easily zoom in to your community to see the census canvassing areas.)

RFPs for census outreach leveraging the HTC 2020 map

Philanthropic foundations and state & local governments across the country have launched grant programs to fund community groups working on 2020 Census outreach to help ensure a fair and accurate count. Several grant programs have issued Requests For Proposals (RFPs) urging grantseekers to use the HTC 2020 map to inform their outreach plans and grant proposals. These include:

• the City of Boston's 2020 Census Mini-Grant Application for Boston-based nonprofits serving hard-to-count populations (deadline: Sept. 6, 2019 4PM);
• a grant program by the Arkansas Counts Census Initiative to support census outreach efforts by local trusted partners, specifically for hard-to-count populations (deadline: Aug. 19, 2019 5PM Central Time); and
• a grant program by Miami-Dade Counts 2020 for "nonprofit and governmental organizations with thoughtful, culturally sensitive, & innovative strategies for reaching communities that have historically low rates of participation in the census" (deadline: Aug. 15, 2019).

The HTC 2020 map in action

Recent examples of organizations & media outlets highlighting and/or using the HTC 2020 map include:

• In July, the Census Bureau published an interview with the Office of Community Engagement at the University of Maryland (UMD) about the university's local census 2020 outreach efforts. The interview notes that "According to the 2020 Census hard to count map, both the College Park area & Prince George’s County had low response rates during the 2010 Census" (emphasis added). These statistics and more helped inspire UMD to partner with the Bureau.
• More organizations have embedded the HTC 2020 map at their websites to provide easy access to the information at the map. Examples include:
  • the City of Arlington, TX;
  • the Florida Nonprofit Alliance (scroll down on the page);
  • the Nebraska Counts 2020 Complete Count Committee; and
  • the Cook County (IL) Census 2020 website includes a custom link to the Cook County view at the HTC map.
• The University of New Mexico's news room published an article in July titled Hard-to-count: ensuring New Mexico is accurately represented in the 2020 Census that featured the HTC map and data being used by the state's official demographer.
• Two articles in Illinois media this month included links to the HTC map to help frame and illustrate their stories:
  • NPR Illinois reported on the 2020 Census challenges in rural towns, using Beardstown, IL as an example. The online report linked to a specific tract in Beardstown on the HTC map.
  • Curbed Chicago reported on the importance of the census to Chicago, linking to a citywide view of hard to count tracts on the map.
• Finally, the NPR affiliate in Atlanta, GA (WABE.org) published a report on Georgia's Young Children At Risk For Undercount in 2020 Census that included several links to the HTC map.

Links to earlier updates

The HTC 2020 map is a work in progress. Other recent updates and enhancements to the map are described here:

• 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.

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