New Construction Program

2020 Census New
Construction Program
What Is the New Construction
Program?
The New Construction Program will help
ensure that the U.S. Census Bureau's
address list is as complete and accurate
Schedule
as possible by Census Day, April 1, 2020.
• April–May 2019: Mail out of
New Construction
The New Construction Program is the
Program
invitation phase materials to
opportunity for you to submit city-style
participants.
mailing addresses for new units where construction began during or
• September 2019: Mail out
after March 1, 2018 and the address was not submitted to the Census
and review of response
Bureau as part of another geographic
materials to participants.
partnership program since March 2018.
Participants have 45 calenAddresses must have basic construction
dar days from the receipt
(closing the structure to the
of materials to complete
elements) completed by
their review.
Census Day.
• September 2019: Census
Bureau will provide training
Why Participate?
Webinars to participants.
Participation in the New
• November 2019: Deadline
Construction Program
for submitting addresses.
helps to ensure an accurate population count in your community;
• April 1, 2020: Census Day.
helps the government distribute more than $675 billion in funds
annually for infrastructure, programs, and services; and helps your
community plan for future needs.

Who Can Participate?
The New Construction Program is offered to federally recognized
tribes with a reservation and/or off-reservation trust lands, states,
counties, cities (legally incorporated places), and townships (minor
civil divisions) that contain blocks where the Census Bureau plans
to mail questionnaires to housing units for the 2020 Census. In
other areas, the Census Bureau will have enumerators deliver
2020 Census questionnaires to all housing units in each block
and record addresses for any new housing units.

Contact Information
E-mail address:
GEO.2020.NC@census.gov
Phone Number: 1-844-242-1765
Web site:
www.census.gov/programs
-surveys/decennial-census/about
/new-construction.html

Connect with us
@uscensusbureau

How to participate.

Each invited government designates a New Construction
Program liaison. The Census Bureau will send the New
Construction Program liaison the New Construction Program
materials.
The New Construction Program liaison must submit a list of
city-style addresses, assigned to the census blocks within its
jurisdiction in the Census Bureau’s predefined format. Maps or
spatial data are provided as a reference for assigning census tract
and block codes (geocoding) for each submitted address. No
street or boundary updates will be accepted. Address lists
submitted without geocoding information will not be accepted.

What’s new?
New Construction
State governments can
now participate in the New
Program
Construction Program.
Now including:
Group Quarters: Places where
people live or stay, in a group
living arrangement, which is
owned or managed by an
entity or organization providing housing and/or services
for the residents.
Transitory Locations: A location that is comprised of
living quarters where people
are unlikely to live year round,
due to the transitory/
temporary/impermanent
nature of these living quarters.

Response options.

Basic digital option: The Geographic Update Partnership Software
(GUPS) is a free, customized Geographic Information System (GIS)
tool that can be downloaded from the Census Bureau Web site. It
was specifically developed for participants who do not have
geographic training or are not experienced GIS users.
Advanced digital option: Experienced GIS users can utilize their
own GIS software. The Census Bureau provides free GIS files in
shapefile format on its Web site, along with digital update
guidelines. Governments can update those shapefiles in their
GIS and use them to respond to the New Construction Program.

Version 2, 10/29/2018

Preparing for the New
Construction Program
Ensure that your
address list contains
multiunit structure
identifiers (such as
apartment numbers
for individual units)
and that you can distinguish
between residential addresses
and nonresidential addresses.

Identify local address sources,
such as building permits, E-911
address files, local utility records,
annexation records, and assessment
or taxation files.