Your Role as a Group Quarters Administrator

In February 2020, the Census Bureau will begin contacting group quarters administrators to obtain important identifying information about their facilities to assist with the enumeration process. During this time, a date and time will be scheduled for the group quarters administrator to conduct the enumeration, and a preferred enumeration method will be selected, as appropriate. 

Please visit Group Quarters Advance Contact for more detailed information.

Timing and Enumeration Methods

Group Quarters Enumeration for the 2020 Census will be conducted across the United States, including in Puerto Rico, April 2 through June 5, 2020. Late Group Quarters Enumeration for the 2020 Census will be conducted July 1 through July 24, 2020.

The following enumeration methods are available to group quarters administrators. For Group Quarters Advance Contact, each group quarters administrator should select the enumeration method that is best suited for their facility. 

• Electronic Response Data Transfer (eResponse) – The group quarters administrator fills in a template with group quarters data and respondent level data for each person who is staying at the facility on Census Day (April 1, 2020).  The group quarters administrator electronically sends the census response data to the Census Bureau. Please note: The eResponse option is not available for service-based administrators.
• In-Person Interview – A census worker conducts a face-to-face in-person interview with each person who is served or staying at the facility on April 1, 2020.
• Drop-Off/Pickup of Questionnaire – A census worker leaves census questionnaires to be completed by or for each person who is staying at the facility on April 1, 2020. The census worker then picks up the completed questionnaires at an agreed-upon time.
• Paper Response Data Collection – A census worker meets with the administrator of the facility to obtain a paper listing of census response data for each person who is served or staying at the facility on April 1, 2020.
• Facility Self-Enumeration – A census worker swears in and trains the group quarters facility administrator and then leaves behind census materials so that the administrator can conduct the enumeration for each person who is living or staying at the facility on April 1, 2020. A census worker then returns to pick up the completed questionnaires at an agreed-upon time. Only military installation group quarters, correctional facilities, and health care facilities can select this option.

What Questions Are Asked at Group Quarters?

The census response data that is collected for each person at your facility includes the following: name, sex, date of birth, age on April 1, 2020, race, whether they are of Hispanic origin, and an alternate address where they live or stay when not at a group quarters facility.

What Are Group Quarters?

Group quarters are places where people live or stay in a group living arrangement. These places are owned or managed by a third party that provides residents with housing and/or services.

A more detailed list of group quarters includes:

• Nursing facilities and skilled nursing facilities
• Hospitals with patients who have no usual home elsewhere
• In-patient hospice facilities
• College, university, and seminary student housing, including residence halls, apartments where students enter “by the bed” leases (i.e., single-liability leases), and fraternity and sorority housing recognized by the college or university
• Military quarters (barracks and dormitories)
• Military disciplinary barracks and jails
• Military treatment centers
• Maritime and military vessels
• Federal and state prisons
• Local jails, and other municipal confinement facilities
• Correctional residential facilities
• Convents, monasteries, abbeys, and other religious group living quarters
• Residential treatment centers (non-correctional)
• Psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric units in other hospitals that provide long-term, non-acute care
• Group homes (non-correctional)
• Workers’ group living quarters
• Job Corps centers or vocational training facilities