It’s crucial to be counted.

The U.S. 2020 Census gets into full swing this week when postcards are scheduled to arrive in the mail March 12-20. The postcards encourage people to fill out a brief Census form online at my2020census.gov.

“The Census is so important because it will determine how $7 trillion in federal funding is allotted over the next decade,” said Census representative Gabe Powell who was in McMinnville on Friday. “It’s government funding for everything from health departments to highways. Title 1 education funding, which Warren County received $2 million for in 2017, is awarded based on the Census.”

Powell said every address in the nation should receive a Census postcard. He said the quickest way is to complete the Census online, although people can also provide the information by phone or request a paper form.

“Every county in the state has at least one Complete Count Committee,” said Powell. “The last time the Census was taken in 2010, less than half the counties had such a committee.”

The Census is not meant to be intrusive. It asks basic questions such as name, date of birth, race and gender. The head of household has nine questions to answer, while there are about five questions to answer pertaining to everyone else in the home.

County Executive Jimmy Haley said Warren County only had an 81 percent return rate on Census forms 10 years ago.

“It’s a constitutional requirement to have a Census so it’s our civic duty to count everyone,” said Haley.

People have until July 31 to fill out the simple form, but city planner Katie Kemezis doesn’t want folks to wait. She is planning to have Census stations at events where crowds of people will be present like Main Street Live.

“Our push is going to be ‘You can do it right now,’” said Kemezis. “It just takes a minute and you can do it from your phone.”