Official Website for 2010 Census Information

Last week, census takers began hand-delivering questionnaires to 12 million U.S. addresses, mostly in rural areas.

Next week, another 120 million U.S. residences will begin receiving the forms by mail.

The 2010 census will play a critical role in determining how the federal government distributes

more than $400 billion each year back to the states for critical programs in education,

housing and community development, health care and transportation.

Gov. Paterson has instructed all state agencies to promote the census.

In addition to Census Day on April 1, there are some other important dates you should know:

March 10: The U.S Census Bureau finalizes and lists online all Questionnaire Assistance Centers (QAC) and Be Counted Sites (BCS). Located in all corners of the state, QACs are staffed by census workers who can help people fill out the census forms if they have questions or need assistance due to language barriers, visual impairment, etc.  People who didn't get questionnaires in the mail can go to a BCS to pick up a form, fill it out and send it back.

Around March 15: Census forms are mailed out.

March 19: Questionnaire Assistance Centers and Be Counted Sites open.

Around May 1:  Census workers will begin knocking on the doors of households that have not mailed in their questionnairesor failed to complete the form properly.  It's nearly 60 times more costly to send a census worker to your house than for you to just send back the form in the mail, so encourage your friends and co-workers to help out the Census Bureau – and taxpayers – by mailing the form back.

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