2020 Census count ends Oct. 15
The 2020 Census count ended Thursday, Oct. 15, after an extension, a retraction, a lawsuit, another extension, another lawsuit, and a final ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. If you have not mailed in or called in your response by the end of the day Oct. 15, it will be too late.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 99.9 percent of all housing units have been counted. Of those, 66.8 percent self-responded. The rest had to be contacted by enumerators either going door to door or — for the first time ever — emailing or calling non-responsive households.
In Burnet County, the self-response rate was 59.2 percent, higher than the 2010 rate of 56.5. Llano County ended with a 47.4 percent self-response rate, down from 49 percent in 2010. Enumerators have been going door to door in both counties to bring the response rate up.
Originally, the 2020 Census count was set to end Aug. 31. After COVID-19 hit pandemic levels, the date was extended to Oct. 31. In early August, the Census Bureau announced it would end all field operations by Sept. 30 instead.
A coalition of cities and counties sued the Trump Administration to keep the Oct. 31 deadline. A judge issued an injunction against the shortened deadline, which was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Oct. 13. The highest court in the land ruled that the count needed to end now to give the Census Bureau time to meet the next deadline. A full report of all data from the 2020 count must be delivered to the president by Dec. 31.