It’ll be 2020 before you know it

The Census is coming to town.

The U.S. Census Bureau kicked off a Census test in Harris County on Monday, surveying 225,000 households as part of its preparation for the 2020 review, the first of its kind to rely primarily on the Internet.

People will be encouraged to answer the questionnaire via the Internet or smart phone apps, though paper and telephone responses will remain available as in the past.

The bureau has already conducted seven tests across the country between 2012 and 2015 that studied topics ranging from race and ethnicity in its run-up to the mandatory once-a-decade headcount. Its eighth and ninth test in Houston and Los Angeles will allow the bureau to try out new designs, methods and technology to collect and process responses to the Census. The two areas were chosen because they are both large and demographically diverse metropolitan areas in which multiple languages are spoken and with a wide spectrum of Internet usage.

The main focus of the test,which runs through August, is refining the process for visiting households that do not respond to the Census, said Deirdre Bishop, chief of the decennial census management division for the Census Bureau.

“What will be really important is using smartphones to collect information from non-responding housing units,” she said. “If we can’t get a response, we’ll be refining how to get that information from what was already given to the government, such as from the U.S. Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service, or the Social Security Administration.”

Here’s all the information you need about this test. It’s going on now, so participate if you can.

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