As we approach the end of 2024, the 2030 Census program has already made great strides. Building on lessons learned from 2020 and prior censuses and incorporating the valuable input of community partners, advisory committees and stakeholders across the nation, we have now finished the Design Selection Phase.

We’re building the next census on the successes and innovations of the 2020 Census, lessons learned, feedback from stakeholders and the public and ongoing work by different areas of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Another crucial aspect of 2030 Census development is our research agenda. We have conducted over 50 research projects, grouped into five enhancement areas (EAs) detailed in the 2030 Census Research Project Explorer. This research agenda was expanded and adjusted to incorporate feedback we received from the 2030 Census Research Federal Register notice.

We wrapped up the EA research projects this year. Census Bureau experts, with diverse subject matter expertise and decennial program leaders, reviewed over 500 preliminary recommendations from the research teams. They carefully considered the research findings, potential impacts to decennial programs and resources, and determined the recommendations that we would continue exploring for incorporation into the 2030 Census design. We’ll now continue researching and testing these in the Development and Integration Phase of the census.

In the following sections, we highlight how we’re proceeding based on the recommendations from each EA. The EAs reflect the decennial program’s key research priorities, which we’ve previously described in a webinar. Below, we offer a quick reminder of each area’s focus.

More importantly, we also describe the promising activities we’ve decided to continue pursuing in this next phase of 2030 Census preparation.

The first EA explored ways to improve data collection methods to effectively reach and count everyone. This effort includes reaching hard-to-count and historically undercounted populations, which is key to our pursuit of a complete count in the 2030 Census. We’re continuing to pursue potential improvements across four subareas:

• Self-response. We will continue to pursue ways of making it easier for people to respond to the census on their own, with and without a census ID. Additionally, we will support a data-driven methodology for identifying locations for Mobile Questionnaire Assistance events, at which Census Bureau staff visit public places in low responding areas to answer questions and help people respond to the census. By using data to determine the locations for these events, Census Bureau staff and partners can offer support when and where it’s needed most and help increase the number of people who respond on their own.
• In-Office and In-Field Enumeration. We will continue to refine the design for these operations, which focus on counting people who are hard to reach or don’t respond on their own. The new In-Office Enumeration operation will support the In-Field Enumeration operation by determining the number of attempts housing units receive during field follow-up. Based on research so far, we will expand the sources of administrative and supplemental data and the way these data are used to determine the number of attempts.  Additionally, we will continue designing a single optimized In-Field Enumeration operation. This will allow efficient and flexible management of previously separate Update Enumerate, Update Leave, and Nonresponse Followup operations. These separate operations previously helped count households in areas difficult to reach by mail or with low internet connectivity, or followed up with households that didn’t respond on their own. We are also planning for potentially allowing the public to respond by using the census taker’s device or a Quick Response (QR) code on the notice of visit the census taker leaves if no one is home. This new enumeration method is expected to reduce challenges to participation such as confidentiality concerns and language barriers.
• Response data quality and questionnaire content. Improving quality is a cornerstone of the 2030 Census. We will continue to focus on improving coverage (how well the census includes everyone) and accuracy in many ways, including by verifying the accuracy and validity of responses through quality follow-up operations. Through the 2023 Census Barriers, Attitudes, and Motivators Study (CBAMS) survey and focus groups, we are aiming to increase engagement and coverage with improved engagement approaches and culturally effective outreach messages. This will help us understand public opinion about the census throughout the decade, not just right before it starts. We're also still exploring ways to refine the household roster question, which asks about people living in the household, to better capture everyone living there.
• Post-Enumeration Survey. We will continue to develop ways for estimating coverage in the 2030 Census. We are also planning to simplify and automate data collection for coverage estimation leveraging enterprise IT solutions, automating data collection instruments and reducing the number of operations.

This EA explored creative, innovative ways to better count people living in group quarters, such as nursing facilities, college/university student housing, service-based locations like emergency and transitional shelters, and in other complex living situations.

• We will continue to improve our methods and approach to the group quarters program, including revising living quarters definitions so they’re easier to understand.
• We will continue to improve methods for counting people experiencing homelessness.
• We will continue developing an online response option for noninstitutionalized group quarters, such as college/university student housing and group homes.

The third EA included research on ways to process census responses and improve data quality in near real time.

• We will continue exploring new strategies to process data in near real time, including modeling and assessing data quality through quality monitoring and assurance activities during data collection.
• We will also develop protypes for address maintenance, response processing and use of machine learning to automate the coding of responses where possible and improve the efficiency and accuracy of coding activities.

With this EA, given technological advancements implemented in the 2020 Census, we aimed to rethink the physical office infrastructure, increase operational agility, improve hiring and related processes, enhance the partnership program and increase the effectiveness of internal system information distribution.

• We will continue developing new strategies for field infrastructure and processes such as using virtual office infrastructure.
• For the partnership program, we will continue developing strategies for the partnership program that include expanding the use of analytics to focus efforts on hard-to-count and historically undercounted populations and increase the outreach strength of partners within a community.
• We will work to expand and enhance a community-based trusted messenger ecosystem, developing and providing culturally relevant tools for communities to use to leverage in our joint efforts to motivate census participation.

With the final EA, we leveraged existing data sources and sought new ones to optimize our once-a-decade count.

• We will continue researching ways to continuously leverage and build on the Census Bureau’s Demographic Frame throughout the decade, similar to how we continuously updated addresses leading up to the 2020 Census.
• We also identified and assessed new administrative and supplemental data sources to increase coverage of all populations. Analysts will continue assessing administrative and supplemental data sources throughout the decade.

It is important to note that the Census Bureau is always looking to improve the way we do our work. While these early research projects included a broad scope to improve the 2030 Census design, they capture only part of our work.

Additional research efforts that affect all of our data collection methods and products, such as disclosure avoidance modernization (how we protect individuals from being identified in the statistics we publish) and the dissemination of census data products, are underway. We’ll share more about these in the coming months, too.

Some of these research results have already driven our goals for the 2026 Census Test, which are described in the blog Testing Our Innovations. Check out the 2030 Census Research Project Explorer tool to learn more about our research projects.

Now that we’ve finalized our early research projects, where do we go from here? We will continue to conduct additional research, small-scale testing (which we’ll continue to do throughout the decade) and engagement with internal and external stakeholders on our path forward.

Next year, we will release our first baseline of the 2030 Census Operational Plan, the initial big-picture plan for how we'll conduct the census. This initial plan will reflect the types of work planned for the 2030 Census (“operational areas”) based on research findings and recommendations, test results, input from advisory committees, the public and 2020 Census lessons learned. We will also continue preparing for the 2026 Census Test, our first large-scale test, which will focus on ensuring viability of our work so far. We plan to release the 2030 Census operations in the second baseline of the 2030 Operational Plan early in 2028.

We look forward to continuing to work with stakeholders to ensure the census represents all communities across the nation. Until then, you can learn more about our preparations for the next census on our 2030 Census webpage. You can also subscribe to receive 2030 Census email updates and follow us on social media.