2020 Census Marketing Effectiveness

It cost 10 cents every time someone responded to the census online. It cost $55 every time a census taker knocked on someone’s door. Because the 2020 Census was the first to allow people to respond online, we pushed online messaging that emphasized both consumer convenience and the enormous cost savings of self-response. Despite one of the most challenging decennial environments in history – amid the COVID-19 pandemic – this data-driven approach helped the 2020 Census surpass its self- response goal of 66.6% and exceed the final self-response rate in 2010.