Efforts to support the 2020 U.S. Census to ensure all residents are counted during the 2020 Census have begun in Gloucester County with the formation of the Gloucester Complete Count Committee.

The committee was formed according to guidelines from the U.S. Census Bureau, which prepares the decennial census as mandated in the Constitution, according to a release from Gloucester’s Department of Community Engagement.

The committee’s primary goals are to help make people aware of the 2020 Census and encourage everyone to participate and be counted. Special focus will be placed on difficult to reach and historically under-counted populations.

Accurate counts are important to localities and used in many ways such as determining government representation, election districts, transportation planning, housing assistance and federal program funding, the release stated. Census data determines how more than $675 billion a year in federal funding is appropriated for local, state and ...