NEWS RELEASE: CB20-CN.25

Over 99% of all U.S. households will be able to respond to the census in their language

MARCH 9, 2020 — As invitations to respond to the 2020 Census begin hitting mailboxes this week, the U.S. Census Bureau wants you to know you can respond in more languages than ever before. In fact, over 99% of the nation’s households will be able to respond to the once-a-decade population count online or by phone in the language they speak at home.

Census invitations arriving between March 12 and March 20 will include an insert in the 12 non-English languages, inviting people to respond online or by phone in their language. These languages, ranked by the number of limited-English-speaking households according to American Community Survey data collected from 2012 to 2016, include:

·         Spanish

·         Chinese (online in Simplified Chinese and by phone in Mandarin and Cantonese)

·         Vietnamese

·         Korean

·         Russian

·         Arabic

·         Tagalog

·         Polish

·         French

·         Haitian Creole

·         Portuguese

·         Japanese

About 13 million households (roughly 9%) will receive invitations in both English and Spanish. These bilingual invitations will go to all households in census tracts (areas with about 4,000 households) where 20% or more of the households primarily speak Spanish, according to American Community Survey data collected from 2013 to 2017.