A complete and accurate count of California’s population is essential. The data collected by the decennial Census determines the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and is used to distribute billions of dollars in federal funds to state and local governments.

That is why California has launched a statewide effort to ensure an accurate and complete count of Californians in the 2020 Census, with a special emphasis on the hardest-to-count Californians. The California Complete Count – Census 2020 Office (California Census Office) is coordinating the State’s outreach and communication strategy, which focuses on the hardest-to-count residents. Working through local governments, Tribal Governments, community-based organizations and media, the state is funding work that will complement work being done nationally by the U.S. Census Bureau.

California leaders have invested $187.2 million toward a statewide outreach and communication campaign. Download the California Census Office’s one-pager (PDF)

The U.S. Census Bureau is responsible for canvassing and conducting the actual enumeration process nationally for each decennial Census. The U.S. Census Bureau will focus on national outreach and media campaigns to inform all individuals living in the United States of the upcoming Census.

The state Census Office, also known as the California Complete Count Office, helps to get the word out about the Census to Californians statewide. The state’s Census Office is targeting the hardest-to-count Californians through grassroots culturally appropriate outreach and multicultural, in-language media efforts.

To access our staff’s email address, click their name below. 
To access our staff’s biographies, click the biography links below.

Visit the Outreach Page.
Visit the External Affairs and Media Relations Page. 

The Census Office is headquartered in Sacramento and, given the geographic size of the state and scope of work that needs to be completed to ensure a successful count, it has established dedicated outreach offices in Los Angeles and San Diego.

The California Complete Count Committee (Committee) is an advisory panel that helps to develop, recommend, and assist in the administration of a Census outreach strategy to encourage full participation in the 2020 Census. Established by Executive Order B-49-18 on April 13, 2018, the Committee’s members work to recommend strategies to increase the count in their respective communities. The members are appointed by the California Governor, including one designee chosen by the Speaker of the State Assembly and one designee chosen by the State Senate President pro Tempore.

At each of the Committee’s quarterly meetings, members come together to listen to updates from the California Complete Count Office, to hear updates from the U.S. Census Bureau, and to draft reports with their advisory recommendations that are due to the Governor’s Office twice per year. The California Census Office supports quarterly meetings of the Committee and its working groups.

The Committee has three internal Working Groups to conduct focused inquiry and discussion and develop recommended strategies on specific areas of concern regarding Census outreach and participation.

• Access and Outreach
• Housing
• Content and Citizenship & Trust and Confidentiality (merged during the Dec. 3, 2018 meeting)

Looking for the California Complete Count reports?

Visit https://census.ca.gov/reports/ to view current and past reports. 

State leaders have made a significant commitment to California Complete Count – Census 2020 (California Census Office) outreach and communication efforts by investing $187.2 million toward strategies and activities that will help ensure an accurate and successful count in California. 

The California Census Office has developed an aggressive statewide community-engagement campaign to reach the least likely to respond areas and hard-to-count (HTC) communities throughout California. It supplements the U.S. Census Bureau’s efforts and, by requiring collaboration and coordination, avoids duplication of work.

The State’s funding is allocated for outreach in communities, including sizeable distributions to counties, Tribal Governments and community-based organizations, education, and for associated programmatic costs. Media funding will supplement this outreach by using local ethnic media to target specific communities and cover any gaps identified in the federal media campaign in California. This funding strategy minimizes the State’s administrative costs and funding recipients to the same standard.

More than 20 media entities and more than 80 community-based organizations responded to the State’s requests for information, providing innovative ideas for outreach that informed Census 2020’s requests for proposals (RFPs).

To view in detail funding information, visit https://census.ca.gov/archives/.