Today, April 1, marks Census Day for the Savannah, Georgia and Maricopa County, Arizona areas, sites where two important test censuses are underway.

During the decennial census every 10 years, Census Day provides the reference day for measuring the population. We’re using the same reference day for the 2015 Census Tests in the Savannah and Maricopa County areas.

If you live in one of our 2015 test sites, I encourage you to learn more about the tests by visiting www.census.gov/2015censustests. Your participation is appreciated and will help us make critical design decisions that will shape how the rest of America participates in the next census in 2020. Mandated by the Constitution, the decennial census counts the residents of the United States once a decade. It determines the number of seats each state has in the U.S House of Representatives, and how over $400 billion in federal funds are distributed to state, tribal, and local communities each year.  The census is a huge undertaking, and the cost has increased significantly each decade.  Our design changes will help us hold the cost down in 2020.

We are conducting these tests five years before the actual Census Day on April 1, 2020, to learn how to leverage new technologies and apply innovative methods to census operations in a real-world census environment. Our goal is a more efficient and cost-effective census that continues to produce high quality data.

We are testing different things at each site. In the 20 counties in Georgia and South Carolina that are part of the Savannah area test, we are exploring new outreach and promotion strategies to inform the public about the census.  We are also learning the best ways to allow residents to complete the questionnaire quickly and securely over the Internet.

In Maricopa County, we are evaluating new technologies for collecting and processing responses to the census. We also will be testing a new field management structure to see if it improves the efficiency and effectiveness of operations to interview households that don’t complete their census test questionnaire during the self-response phase.

The timing of these tests is critical as we must make important design decisions later this year. By 2018, we must lock in operating systems and methods for the 2020 Census. These tests, and those planned for 2016 and 2017, will give us the information we need to build our systems and develop the processes we will use to implement the largest peacetime operation conducted in the United States.

The 2020 Census will be unlike any other in history thanks to the tests we are conducting now. The new methods that we are researching will result in savings estimated to be approximately $5 billion from the projected cost of using methods from the 2010 Census.