New Fielding Methods and Innovations Are Planned for the 2020 Census
(2019) More than 300 million people live in the United States and getting an accurate count of each and every one of them is no easy feat. As the U.S. population has grown—from just under 4 million in 1790 to more than 329 million in 2019—the Census Bureau’s enumeration methods (how they count people) have evolved to adapt to new technologies, increase efficiency and accuracy, and help to control rising costs.