Share On:

News 03.12.10

what to do if your census form has incorrect name or address information

If your Census form has the wrong city name or ZIP code, the actual location of your address has been verified for accuracy and assigns your data to the correct geographic area:

• The address on your census form or advance letter may not list the city name you identify with or are used to seeing on your mail. This is a result of an efficiency cost-saving measure that streamlines how the forms are sorted and delivered to you by the U.S. Postal Service. However, it will NOT affect which city, town or block your household’s responses will be assigned to.
• Contained in the barcodes on your form is information about the correct geographic location to which your housing unit belongs. This geographic information was verified last year by census workers who physically located each housing unit on the ground and assigned the housing units a “geocode” using special census maps and GPS coordinates.
• In addition, the Census Bureau provided local governments an opportunity to review and provide feedback on the address list we developed for their municipality through the Local Update of Census Addresses or LUCA Program. Most municipal officials verified that the Census Bureau accurately coded each house to the proper municipality, regardless of the address used by the U.S. Postal Service for delivering the mail.
• Please fill out the form for your entire household to make sure that your city, town or block is accurately counted.

If you received an advance letter or census form that lists the wrong house number and street name, a census worker will follow-up with you at a later time.

• If you have not yet answered the form, you may write “wrong address” on the front of the envelope, and leaving the questions blank, you may return the envelope by mail. A census worker will follow-up with you at a later time.
• If you have already answered questions on the form but have not mailed it, you may discard it in a way that is comfortable for you so that your personal information is not made known to the public. A census worker will follow-up with you at a later time.
• If you have already completed the form and mailed it back, a census worker may follow-up with you at a later time in order to double check that all addresses are counted in the census.

If your city or area did not receive census forms, they are either on their way or census workers will come in May through July to conduct the census in person.

• Millions of census forms are still on their way. The forms for your area may be among them.
• If we are unable to deliver forms to your area by mail for operational reasons, we will send census workers to conduct the census face-to-face beginning in May.

 

 

More News >