Census Bureau Seeks Input from Tribal Leaders for 2020 Census

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Jul 01, 2015, 11:57 ET

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the U.S. Census Bureau announced plans to conduct eight tribal consultation meetings and one national webinar with 566 federally recognized tribes across the country from October 2015 through April 2016.

"As we move toward the 2020 Census, we are eager to continue to receive feedback from the American Indian and Alaska Native community," Census Bureau Director John H. Thompson said today at the National Congress of American Indians General Assembly. "Through this collaboration we can make progress in a way that meets the community's needs and helps the Census Bureau leverage the American Indian and Alaska Native population's input to increase the response rate, improve accuracy and get information on topics like geography, recruitment activities, data collection operations, outreach and promotion, and others."

This program is one part of the overall communication and outreach efforts directed at ensuring a cost-effective and accurate population count in 2020. Building awareness about the importance of the 2020 Census is essential in motivating response to the census in communities all across the country, including the American Indian and Alaska Native population living both on and off tribal lands.

Similar meetings were held before the 2010 Census. The 2020 Census tribal consultations will be conducted earlier this decade to acknowledge the lessons learned from the 2010 Census.

The purpose of these meetings is:

To build on the government-to-government relationship in preparation for the planning of operations and communications for the 2020 Census.
To begin identifying the operations and communications essential to our efforts to increase the response rate for American Indian and Alaska Native populations in the census.
To gain input from tribes to help improve household count accuracy.
To obtain information on topics pertinent to the census in Indian Country, including geography issues, recruitment activities, data collection operations, outreach and promotion activities, and others.

In the coming months, a Federal Register Notice will ask for public comment on these meetings to help prepare materials and agendas. For more information on these meetings, please visit census.gov.

Public Information Office
301-763-3030 / [email protected]

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau