The results are critically important because this once-a-decade census data helps businesses, researchers, and communities make decisions.
There are many ways the 2020 Census can shape your community. For example, the data can help inform where your community needs:
- Representation: The decennial count of all U.S. residents is required by the U.S. Constitution to determine representation in Congress and the Electoral College (known as reapportionment). This data is also the basis for drawing districts for federal, state, and local offices (known as redistricting).
- Funding: The Census is key to the allocation of billions of dollars in federal funding to states and localities for all kinds of programs and capital improvements, such as the NYS grants received to help renovate the Library in 2009.
- Information: Data resulting from the Census is widely used by researchers, governments, businesses, and other organizations to, for example, plan for a new school, a new road, more funding for school lunches, etc.