Census forms have been arriving in Foster City mailboxes this week.  Questions have arisen about how the data is assigned because some forms addressed to Foster City homes list San Mateo in the mailing address.

The City of Foster City has verified with the Census Bureau that even if an individual census form has the wrong city name, the actual location of the address has been verified for accuracy and the data will be assigned to the correct geographic area.  For Foster City residents, the census data will be assigned to Foster City.

The addresses on the census forms or advance letters may not list the city name that residents identify with or are used to seeing on their mail.  This is a result of an efficiency cost-saving measure that streamlines how the forms are sorted and delivered by the US Postal Service.  However, it will NOT affect which city, town or block to which the household’s responses will be assigned.  Information about the correct geographic location to which the housing unit belongs is contained in a barcode on the form.  This geographic information was verified last year by census workers who physically located each housing unit on the ground and assigned the housing units a “geocode” using special census maps and GPS coordinates.

Don’t forget to turn in your census questionnaire before April 1, 2010 so that we can have a complete count in Foster City.