On National Census Day, Government Highlights Once-a-Decade Count

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2010— -- You've probably gotten the form in the mail. Maybe you've seen one of the television commercials. One way or another it's a safe bet that you know that the U.S. Census is underway.

Just in case you didn't know, the government has dubbed today National Census Day, the reference date for its once-a-decade attempt to count the country's population.

"It's a snapshot of where the population is living at a particular moment in time," Census Bureau director Robert Groves said in an interview with ABC News.

Over 134 million forms have been sent out to households nationwide. A $133 million advertizing blitz – including a cross-country road tour – has been going on for months. Even President Obama taped an ad urging people to participate. All part of the government's $14.7 billion effort to paint a portrait of the population.

The government's goal is to get as many people as possible to fill out and mail back the 10-question form. For every one percent increase in the number of people who mail back their forms, the government saves $85 million by not having to send bureau employees door-to-door looking for non responders.

"This is the one thing we can all do to attack the federal deficit," Groves said. "We all save money by having not to pay for the follow-up."

If everyone mailed back their census forms, the cost of the government effort would fall by $1.5 billion. And the more people get counted, the more help they'll get from the government – the census is used to allocate seats in Congress and distribute around $400 billion in federal funds.