U.S. Census Bureau

The 2030 LUCA Schedule: Key Dates for Tribal, State, and Local Governments

By EditorJul 21, 20260 Comments

The Census Bureau has published a schedule for the 2030 Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA), the process by which tribal, state, and local governments review and comment on the Census Address List for their jurisdictions before the 2030 Census. The Bureau relies on a complete and accurate address list to reach every living quarter and its associated population for inclusion in the decennial census, and LUCA is the mechanism that brings local review into that list. A review begins with a government comparing the Census Bureau's Address Count Listing File for its area (also called a block count list),…

Census Data and Geography, Local Redistrictinglocal-admin, LUCA, U.S. Census Bureau

The BBSP Deadline Passed. Now What? A Guide for Local Officials

By EditorJul 18, 20260 Comments

The Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP) exists so that states can identify non-standard features often used as electoral boundaries (power lines, property lines, or streams) that could serve alongside more traditional features (such as street centerlines) as census tabulation block boundaries. States, through their official liaisons, may also identify features that are not desirable as block boundaries. In addition, legal boundaries reviewed in coordination with the annual Boundary and Annexation Survey also become census tabulation block boundaries. Where no suggestions are submitted, local precinct boundaries following features the Bureau does not already carry are unlikely to appear as census block…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBBSP, dataindepth, local-admin, U.S. Census Bureau

The Boundary Annexation Survey (BAS) Submission Checklist for Local Governments

By EditorJul 14, 20260 Comments

The Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) is the Census Bureau's annual check-in with local government on where its legal boundaries actually are. Each year the Bureau contacts federally recognized American Indian areas, counties and county equivalents, incorporated places, and minor civil divisions, asking each to confirm that the Bureau has the correct boundary, name, and status for that government. The public and data users rely on the annual BAS boundaries as the official federal representation of boundaries for legal governments. The Census Bureau maintains this data in its MAF/TIGER System and publishes the results through the annual TIGER/Line release. For…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBAS, dataindepth, local-admin, U.S. Census Bureau

A Prep Checklist for Election Offices Before the Census Bureau’s 2028 Voting District Project Begins

By EditorJul 10, 20260 Comments

The U.S. Census Bureau's Voting District Project (VTDP) will give state liaisons the opportunity to submit and verify their voting districts, the Bureau's generic term for precincts, election districts, wards, and similar areas, for inclusion in the 2030 Census Redistricting Data products. Program submissions come only from the official state liaison, so local election and GIS offices take part by being designated as technical liaisons or by routing their data through the liaison. The quality of a state's submission depends on groundwork done locally, and the most useful steps can be taken well before the cycle opens in early 2028.…

Local Redistrictinglocal-admin, U.S. Census Bureau, vtdp

Official vs. Technical Liaisons: Who Can Actually Submit in the Voting District Project

By EditorJun 24, 2026

The Census Bureau runs the Redistricting Data Program through a single official nonpartisan liaison in each state, jointly identified by the governor and the legislative leaders responsible for redistricting. That liaison manages the geographic updates submitted in each phase and reviews and approves them before the Bureau loads them into its MAF/TIGER database. Program submissions are accepted only from the official liaison, but that does not exclude local expertise from the process. The official liaison may designate technical liaisons - for example, county GIS staff - who can perform geographic updates and submit completed work to the Census Bureau on…

Local Redistrictinglocal-admin, U.S. Census Bureau, vtdp

Are your Precincts “Actual” or “Pseudo”? What Local Officials Should Know about the Census Bureau’s Voting District Program

By EditorJun 19, 2026

The Census Bureau tabulates population by census geography ( ie., census blocks, tracts, counties), not by the precincts and wards that election offices actually run. Without a way to bridge that gap, states would receive decennial population counts that could not be readily matched to their own election geography. The Voting District Project (VTDP) is that bridge: once each decade, as Phase 2 of the Redistricting Data Program, the Census Bureau invites each state to submit its voting districts - its generic term for precincts, election districts, and wards - so that population data can be tabulated for those areas…

Local Redistrictinglocal-admin, U.S. Census Bureau, vtdp

Census Watchdog Flags Risks to the 2030 Count

By EditorJun 18, 2026

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns that the Census Bureau, having narrowed the scope of its 2026 Census Test, may finalize important parts of the 2030 count's design before it has evidence that those methods actually work. Released June 4, 2026, the report describes that the Bureau has reduced planned test sites from six to two and 19 planned operational activities to nine, leaving fewer opportunities to evaluate the new approaches the agency hopes to use at the end of the decade. These preparations matter far beyond the test itself, because the once-a-decade count determines…

Census Data and Geographycensus 2030, dataindepth, local-news, U.S. Census Bureau

BBSP vs. BAS: Two Census Programs, Two Crucial Jobs

By EditorJun 04, 2026

The Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) and the Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP) are often conflated; both involve local geography and the Census Bureau, but they do different jobs. BAS is the Bureau's annual survey to keep the legal boundaries and names of governments current, such as city limits, county lines, township boundaries, and tribal areas. BBSP is a once-a-decade phase of the Redistricting Data Program in which a state suggests which features the Bureau should use as statistical census tabulation block (census block) boundaries. The other differences follow from that split. BAS runs every year, and each eligible government…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBAS, BBSP, dataindepth, local-admin, U.S. Census Bureau

From 1990 to 2030: A Short History of the Census Block-Boundary Suggestion Project

By EditorMay 22, 2026

The Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP) is now in its fourth decade. It began as part of the Census Bureau's first nationwide Redistricting Data Program for the 1990 Census, following a 1984 pilot test that yielded positive results, which led to its full implementation. While census blocks were first used in 1940, only for cities of 50,000 or more inhabitants and other governments that contracted for the work, they were first used nationwide in 1990. Along with the nationwide census block-numbering system, which gave states the small-area geography they needed to meet Voting Rights Act obligations and minimal-population-deviation districting standards, BBSP helped move redistricting…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBBSP, dataindepth, localpage, U.S. Census Bureau

Why the 2030 Census LUCA Program Matters to Redistricting and GIS Staff

By EditorMay 16, 2026

Most redistricting discussions focus on the maps, who draws them, what criteria they must meet, and how they will hold up in court. But every redistricting map built from 2030 Census data will ultimately rest on a foundation that GIS and redistricting staff rarely talk about: the Census Bureau's residential address list. The Local Update of Census Addresses operation is the first to occur in every decennial census cycle, and it gives state, tribal, and local governments their only opportunity to directly help ensure an accurate enumeration by reviewing and submitting updates or corrections to the confidential address list before…

Census Data and Geography, Local Redistrictingdataindepth, local-admin, LUCA, U.S. Census Bureau