The U.S. Census Bureau announced on March 23 that it has changed its 2026 Census Test locations to Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina. The agency said these sites were chosen to help study how working with the U.S. Postal Service could improve census response rates and in-field data collection for the upcoming 2030 Census.
Starting May 1, about 154,600 households in both cities will be invited to complete the test online in English using computers or mobile devices. There will be no option for phone or mail responses during this test period.
The questions asked will mirror those from the American Community Survey, covering topics such as name, race, sex, citizenship status, and education level. Households that do not respond online may receive visits from census takers—including postal workers—beginning June 1 through August 31 when data collection ends. The Census Bureau emphasized that all survey responses are confidential and protected by federal law.
A key feature of this test is a pilot program with USPS to see if postal workers can help collect census responses from non-responding households. In Huntsville, selected postal workers will be hired as temporary Census Bureau employees to gather information outside their normal USPS hours; they will identify themselves only as census staff. In Spartanburg, participating postal workers will collect data during their regular mail routes while remaining USPS employees and may wear official uniforms.
Both cities will use a mix of city and rural carriers alongside traditional census takers for fieldwork duties. Each site expects about twenty-five postal workers and twenty-five other enumerators involved in household visits.
The goal of these efforts is to find ways to reduce the number of required follow-up visits by census takers—potentially lowering staffing needs and costs while improving accuracy ahead of the full national count planned for 2030.
