Deadline to complete 2020 Census extended

At the hospital.

New information.

You now have more time to complete the 20-20 census and play a role in alabama's future for the next decade.

Originally today, the deadline to complete the census questionnaire has been extended to october 31st.

Waay 31's grace campbell learned how officials plan to use these extra three and a half weeks to get more responses.

It takes about ten minutes to complete the 2020 census on one of these.your phone or laptop... and that lets you have an influence over what happens to the state in the next 10 years.

Huntsville city planner james vandiver told me filling out the census impacts our roads, representation in washington d-c and much more.

Pkg: james vandiver: the best thing you can do as a citizen to make sure we have adequate school funding, adequate road funding, adequate healthcare funding, to ensure we have the services and quality of life that we deserve, you need to take the extra ten minutes and fill out the census."

More than 675 billion dollars is distributed per year based on the results from the census, so the more people who complete the census, the more funding alabama will receive.

James vandiver: things like medicare, transportation grants, title one school grants, childrens health insurance, national school lunch programs. it's really important that everyone's counted because it affects everybody from political representation to federal funding."

Graphic showing numbers currently, 63% of alabama has responded to the census.

The national average is 66%.

In north alabama, madison county is almost at 76%.

Morgan county is at 71% but dekalb county is far below the state's average with 53% the goal is to have 100 % completion rate and organizations are taking some last efforts to get our state there.

James vandiver: "we'll be advertising through social media, we'll be working with our community groups to make sure they get the word out."

Vandiver hopes this new deadline will get alabama there.

James vandiver: i think this one more extension will really help us get over the finish line."

Look live not shot you can go to waay tv dot com and find a link to fill out the census questionnaire.

In huntsville, grace campbell, waay 31 news.