Its premise is so simple it defies debate. But, even with its army of workers and a budget that could sustain a small nation, carrying it out seems nearly impossible.
"Our goal," said Ed Burleson, office manager of the U.S. Census Bureau's Hickory location, "is to count every single person in the United States."
Burleson and other census officials have been making their rounds in the past few weeks at just about any civic, church or government event that will have them preaching the gospel of the accurate head count.
Most of those ambassadors are members of what are known as Complete Count Committees, which are largely composed of community leaders.
Last week, Burleson spoke at the Iredell County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Burleson stressed the importance of an accurate count. By which, he means, a count in which every person responds to the survey.
"And we mean every single inhabitant," Burleson said in a later interview with the R&L.
"We are actually going to be looking under bridges and going to homeless shelters and soup kitchens," he said. "It is just so important for people to know this about their democratic right to stand up and be counted."
Burleson said that from the Census Bureau's perspective, that right extends to everyone, regardless of what type of official documentation they have.
"I know some people, particularly from some ethnic groups, have a difficult time trusting 'Big Brother,' " he said. "But we don't care about a person's status in the country. For jobs and other things you need passports or visas or other paperwork. We don't need any of that."
Indeed, Burleson said, in the eyes of the Census Bureau, everyone is exactly equal.
"This is what I would call the purest form of democracy," he said. "This is pure numbers, and numbers do not discriminate."
He added that "a ton of information" is determined and decided by those numbers.
"From representation to roads to schools to funding ... to emergency response procedure," Burleson said, "just about everything involving the federal government is derived from those numbers."
Burleson noted that following both the 1990 and 2000 censuses, North Carolina earned additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The 10-question census survey forms will be going out in the next two weeks and deal with information relevant on April 1.
Essentially the 10 questions are: number of people in household; their names; sex; age; race; type of residence (house, apartment or mobile home); and phone number.
And Burleson said the information gathered during the census is protected by threat of prison and fines from being used for anything other than the census data.
"This is simplest form we've ever used, so we need everyone to return it."
In 2000, about 67 percent of the forms were mailed back.
The other 33 percent of the people counted in the survey had to be tracked down by census workers. And Burleson said that is a costly endeavor.
He said that every 1 percent of the population that does not respond costs taxpayers more than $80 million.
"And that's money that could be used for communities," he said.
Burleson stressed several times that the information is important and secure.
"It should take 10 minutes, at the most," Burleson said. "So when you get the form, fill it out, send it back and stand up and be counted."
There are also jobs available for enumerators and other positions. Burleson said those interested should call 1-866-861-2010 to learn more about employment opportunities.
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