GAO 12 80, DECENNIAL CENSUS Gao Form

Instructions and help about GAO 12 80, DECENNIAL CENSUS Gao

[ Background Music ] >>The demographic information the Census Bureau collects is key to defining legislative districts and allocating billions of dollars in financial assistance each year. In 2020, the federal government will once again conduct a constitutionally-required census of the nation's population. But as the Census Bureau tries to apply innovative technologies and new ideas to the count in order to help control costs and maintain accuracy, it faces new challenges. Hi, I'm Robert Goldenkoff, a director in GAO's Strategic Issues team. As you might expect, accurately counting a nation of well over 300 million people in over 140 million housing units is no easy task. With a life-cycle cost of over $12 billion, the 2010 Census was the most expensive U.S. census in history. The Bureau's plan for 2020 includes innovations that it believes will save taxpayers more than $5 billion compared to traditional methods. These innovations include giving people the option of using the Internet