The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it will begin emailing households in lowresponding areas encouraging response to the 2020 census.

Millions of emails will be sent initially, then grow in numbers to continue into September. These emails supplement a final campaign reminding people to respond to the 2020 census on their own, as census takers begin asking households to respond to the census.

The messages alert households in low-response areas that time is running out and responding to the 2020 census is important for their communities. The email messages will invite people to respond online at 2020census.gov.

PThe emails will go to all households in census block groups with a response rate lower than 50%. This will include households who may have already responded. In total, the Census Bureau expects to email more than 20 million households in these low-responding areas.

The email messages will come from 2020census@subscriptions.census.gov and give recipients the option to opt out of receiving future messages. The Census Bureau is also considering sending text mes sages to areas that have low response.

The Census Bureau’s recent success with contacting households by email to participate in the Household Pulse Survey prompted the agency to add these methods to support the 2020 census. This contact method will help increase response rates and reduce the need for in-person follow-up.

Households have until Sept. 30 to respond to the 2020 census. However, census takers have begun following up with households that have not responded in select areas and will begin following up with households nationwide