STATESBORO — College students who spend most of the school year living away from their parents’ home should count themselves at their on-campus or off-campus residence for the 2020 census.

While COVID-19 has sent many students back home, they should still count themselves in the 2020 census according to where they would normally be living on April 1, 2020, which was designated as this year’s Census Day, according to the Census 2020 website.

University Housing will handle the census responses for students living in on-campus housing, according to an email from GS Communications and Marketing.

Students in off-campus housing should have received information in the mail about how to respond to the census.

The census can be filled out online, over the phone or by using the written form included in the mail.

Because only one form has to be filled out for each household, students who fill out the form for their place of residence should be sure to count any roommates, children or other people who are living in or renting a space in their home.

Data from the 2020 census will be used over the next decade to determine how federal funding is spent, determine the number of seats each state gets in the House of Representatives and redraw congressional and state legislative districts.

For more information on the census or how to count yourself in it, go to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Census 2020 website: https://2020census.gov/en.html.

Abby Fuller, The George-Anne News Reporter, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu