Calaveras County is participating in California’s Complete Count Census 2020 effort that is a statewide outreach and awareness campaign designed to ensure an accurate and complete count of all Californians in the upcoming 2020 United States Census. The 2020 Census is on April 1, 2020 and is the first to rely heavily on online responses and discouraging the use of “paper” mail-in surveys. This will pose a separate set of challenges to us especially given our rural communities that have limited internet access. For our residents that do not have access to the internet, we will have drop-in survey locations set up at each of the Calaveras County branch libraries.

Why is the Census important? The results are used to allocate Congressional seats, electoral votes, and government program funding to state and local governments. Locally, that means funding for schools, health care, housing, roads, and vital services. Businesses use census data to decide where to build factories, offices and stores, and create jobs. Developers use census data to determine where to build new homes and revitalize aging neighborhoods.

For every person missed during the Calaveras County Census 2020 count, we are expected to lose approximately $1,950 per person, per year, for 10 years, in federal program funding – that’s almost $20,000 per person until the next census in 2030!

Our goal is to ensure that Calaveras County gets its fair share of federal resources and Congressional representation by encouraging full participation in Census 2020.  The county’s outreach campaign will focus on both the geographic areas and demographic populations who are “least likely to respond” also identified as “hard-to-count” communities. 

Please keep checking back to see Calaveras County’s Census 2020 updates and additional information.