Meeting set with local officials about 2020 Census

U.S. officials from the Census Bureau, the City of Havre and Hill County will be in Havre to plan and discuss the 2020 Census Tuesday.

“This is a kickoff event for the city and county to plan out how they intend to make sure the Havre area gets the most accurate count possible,” Census Bureau Dallas Regional Office Media Specialist Josh Manning said in a notice about the meeting.

The event begins at 2 p.m. in the Bear Paw Development Corp. large conference room on the second floor of the Ryan Building. 

“We have learned over the decades of doing the census that having local organizations and governments plan out their census involvement is one of the most effective ways to have trusted locals make sure their neighbors and community members accurately fill out the census,” Manning said.

The census is set to begin mid-March and run through late July next year. The census may still not be for eight months but it is important to begin planning because, nationwide, “it’s such a massive undertaking,” he said.

The Census Bureau is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau website says. The U.S. Census Bureau is overseen by the Economics and Statistics Administration within the Department of Commerce.

The Economics and Statistics Administration provides economic analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. It adds that the Census Bureau is to collect quality data about people and economics and is collected by the bureau.

The data collected is used in the decennial census, which determines the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and how billions of dollars of federal funding will be distributed to local communities.

The first national census was done in 1790, by then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, and has been conducted every decade since.