If you are an active duty service member (or a Reserves or Guard member), your circumstances will determine how you are counted in the 2020 Census:

• Living in a housing unit on a military base? You can respond to the census online, by phone, or by mail.
• Living in U.S. barracks on a military base? The Census Bureau will identify a military point of contact on your base to ensure that you are counted. This could mean completing the census form yourself.
• Living in a campground on a military base? A census worker will visit you at the campground and collect your response.
• Assigned to a U.S. military vessel? A military point of contact, vessel project officer, commander, or operator will provide a census form for you to complete.
• Deployed outside the United States on Census Day? Using existing data provided by the Department of Defense, the Census Bureau will count you at the U.S. residence where you live and sleep most of the time.
• Stationed outside the United States on Census Day? Using existing data provided by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, the Census Bureau will count you (along with any dependents living with you outside the U.S.) as part of the U.S. federally affiliated overseas population.
  

If you are a high school or college student, your circumstances will determine where you are counted in the 2020 Census:

• Boarding school students below the college level should be counted at the home of their parents or guardians.
• Students who are living at home should be counted at their home address.
• College students who live away from home should be counted at the on- or off-campus residence where they live and sleep most of the time, even if they are at home on April 1, 2020. If they live in housing designed for college students (such as dorms and apartments with “by-the-bed” leases), they will be counted as part of the Group Quarters Operation. If they live off campus in housing that is not designed for college students (such as a private house or apartment), they should count themselves at that address.
• High school or college students who are living or studying abroad outside the United States on April 1, 2020, are not counted in the census.
• Foreign students living and attending school in the United States should be counted at the on- or off-campus residence where they live and sleep most of the time.

Babies born on or before April 1, 2020, should be counted at the home where they will live or sleep most of the time, even if they are still in the hospital on Census Day.

Babies born after April 1, 2020, should not be counted in the 2020 Census.

You should count yourself where you live and sleep most of the time, even if you are away from your usual residence on April 1, 2020.

Visitors who are staying in your home on April 1, 2020, but who will return to their normal residence should be counted where they live and sleep most of the time.

Residents of foreign countries who are temporarily visiting the United States on vacation or business on April 1, 2020, should not be counted.

Citizens of foreign countries who are living in the United States, including members of the diplomatic community, should be counted at the U.S. residence where they live and sleep most of time.

Citizens of foreign countries who are temporarily visiting the United States on vacation or business on April 1, 2020, should not be counted.

If you live outside the country, and you are not employed by the U.S. government or as a member of the U.S. military, you are not counted in this census.

The Census Bureau will use existing official records to count military and civilian employees of the U.S. government who are living outside the United States as well as the dependents living with them overseas. These individuals do not need to respond to a questionnaire.

If you live at multiple places throughout the year, count yourself at the address where you live and sleep most of the time. If you split your time evenly between two or more places, count yourself where you are staying on April 1, 2020.

If you are moving, be sure to count yourself just once, in one home. Count yourself where you were living on April 1, 2020.

• If you move into your new residence on April 1, count yourself at that residence.
• If you move out of your old residence on April 1 but will not move into your new home until April 2 or later, count yourself at the old residence.

The following types of patients will be counted at the residence where they live and sleep most of the time:

• Patients in the hospital for a routine stay.
• Patients at inpatient hospice facilities.
• Newborn babies (who should be counted where they will live after leaving the hospital).

The following types of patients will be counted at the health care facility where they're staying on April 1, 2020:

• People with no usual home.
• People in psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric units for long-term, nonacute care.
• People in nursing facilities.

Please visit Counting People in Group Living Arrangements for more information.

People who are living in any of the following facility types on April 1, 2020, will be counted at their facility:

• Federal and state prisons.
  
• Federal detention centers.
  
• Local jails and other municipal confinement facilities.
  
• Correctional residential facilities.
  

Please visit Counting People in Group Living Arrangements for more information.

If you are living in an emergency or transitional shelter that provides sleeping facilities for people experiencing homelessness, you will be counted at the shelter. Please visit Counting People in Group Living Arrangements for more information.

If you have been displaced by a natural disaster, you should count yourself where you are living and sleeping most of the time as of April 1, 2020. If your usual residence is not condemned or destroyed, you should count yourself there. If your usual residence is condemned or destroyed, you should count yourself where you are staying on April 1, 2020, such as a friend’s or family member’s home or a residence where you are living until your new or previous home is built or repaired.

If you are living or staying at a campground, a recreational vehicle park, a marina, a hotel, or another transitory location, the Census Bureau has a special process in place to make sure you are counted in the 2020 Census. Census takers will visit these locations to conduct interviews in person. If you have a usual home elsewhere, you will be asked to provide the address of that home so that you can be counted there. Please visit How Are People Counted at RV Parks, Campgrounds, and Other Transitory Locations? for more information.

If you do not have a permanent address, you should count yourself where you are living on April 1, 2020. For example, if you are temporarily staying with a friend, you would be counted as part of the census form for their address.

The Census Bureau has specific processes in place to count people who are experiencing homelessness, including people who are in shelters, at soup kitchens and mobile food vans, and in nonsheltered, outdoor locations such as tent encampments. In those cases, census takers will coordinate with shelter directors, service providers, partners, and local census offices.

People experiencing homelessness can also go to a public library and complete a census questionnaire online by providing a description of the location where they were sleeping on April 1, 2020.