The 2020 Census Begins Today in Alaska

The 2020 Census began today in frigid temperatures in a tiny Alaska village on the edge of the Bering Sea.

Toksook Bay, an Alaska Native community, was home to 661 people when the last census was taken in 2010. Like approximately 220 other Alaska Native villages in remote Alaska, Toksook Bay is not reachable by road. The only way there is by plane or boat.

People who live in these extremely remote areas, known as “Bush Alaska,” are counted in person by census takers because they don’t have regular post office addresses and mail is not delivered to their homes.

But those who live on the frozen tundra of remote Alaska are counted earlier than the rest of the country.  

It is easier to cross the ground now than in the spring, before the snow melts and the ground turns to mush. Also, it is easier to find people who live here at home now rather than in the spring, when many families will be away hunting and fishing.

The rest of the nation, as well as major cities in Alaska and the entire southeastern part of the state, will respond to the census starting in mid-March.

Today, an elder in Toksook Bay was the first person counted in the 2020 Census by U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham.

"In remote Alaska, the local census takers must get this head start while the ground is still frozen," Dillingham said. "Our census takers will be using bush planes or snowmobiles to access these areas."  

Responding to the 2020 Census is important for Alaska Natives, as well as everyone in the country. Results are used to determine political representation, including how many seats a state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Tribal, state, local, and federal officials use census statistics to help inform how to spend billions of dollars in public funds every year for 10 years on critical services, like education programs such as Head Start and teacher training, health insurance and nutrition programs for low-income people, hospitals and health care clinics, and maintenance and construction of roads and bridges.

In Toksook Bay, census takers who speak the Yup’ik language are visiting homes to help people complete the 2020 questionnaire.

This is the third time that a decennial census has begun in a remote Alaska Native village. In 2010, it was the village of Noorvik. In 2000, it was the village of Unalakleet.

The Census Bureau has been working closely with American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) across the country for several years to plan for the 2020 Census:

• 13 consultations were held between the Census Bureau and federally recognized American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) tribes and groups in 2016.
• More than 400 leaders representing 250 tribes, village corporations, and organizations have met with Census Bureau tribal specialists.
• The Census Bureau held more than a dozen focus groups with the AIAN community.
• 100 Partnership Specialists were hired to help coordinate directly with AIAN groups.
• People from AIAN communities are being hired to be census takers.

At the same time, a robust advertising and social media campaign includes focused outreach to American Indian and Alaska Native audiences, including hard-to-count groups such as children.

Advertisements on television, radio, print (newspapers and magazines), and online have begun in Alaska and will appear this month in areas of the U.S. where many AIAN people live. The advertising campaign was informed by extensive research and in partnership with ad agencies that specialize in communications with AIAN populations.