Appearing soon in state mailboxes between all the fliers, utility bills and credit card ads will be your annual town census.
Marked with the header “important legal document,” the annual town census — also called the annual street listing — is often little more than a one-page questionnaire. These bureaucratic pieces of paper are actually an important part of keeping residents well served and safe in their city or town.
Here’s your guide to the annual municipal census.
What’s the census and why does my city send it out every year?
The census is a survey of each municipality in Massachusetts. It’s essentially the way each resident, on paper, stands up and says “I live here” to their local government. That act of standing up and being counted serves as a kind of keystone action that supports further important government processes like voting and jury selection.
Each household receives one census. In Pittsfield, more than 18,000 censuses will be sent out this year.
Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that conducts a mandatory annual municipal census. State law requires that every year city clerks reach out to the residents of every building in their city or town, and “after diligent inquiry, shall make true lists containing, as nearly as they can ascertain,” a list of everyone living in their city or town.
The census accomplishes this task as well as checks the mark on another state law that requires each city to prepare a list of all the names and addresses of everyone 17 years old and older in a community.
What kinds of questions does it ask?
There are a couple mandatory questions each census must ask. Those are what is the name, birthdate, occupation, nationality and veteran status of everyone living in the household.
City and town clerks throughout the commonwealth are busy this month sending out the annual town censuses — also known as street listings. The one page questionnaires, like this 2023 version from the town of Adams, are important keystone documents for voter registration, jury lists, grant funding and public planning.
Many communities also ask whether anyone in the household has recently moved or passed away. That’s because one of the core functions of the census is to maintain the commonwealth’s active voter rolls and list of potential jurors.
“The purpose of it for us is to make sure that you are accounted for and keep you active on the voter registration list,” Pittsfield Assistant City Clerk Heather Brazeau said.
If someone marks down that they’ve moved out of the city or town, that’s a flag for the clerk’s office to take them off their voter rolls and send them the paperwork to change their voter registration.
And “deceased?”
“We check the obits every day, check them against the voter rolls and delete as needed,” Brazeau said. “But you know not everyone can afford that. So if someone’s on [the rolls] that has passed, it’s imperative that we know that they did so we can take them off the voter rolls.”
So it’s connected to voting. Does answering register me to vote?
No. Filling out the census doesn’t register you to vote but does keep you listed as an active voter once you’ve already taken the steps to register. That's especially important this year as the state prepares for a presidential primary election on March 5.
Having an active voter listing means one less step when you get to the voting booth.
Anyone who doesn’t respond to the census will be listed as an inactive voter and be asked to present a form of ID to verify their residency with an election worker on the day of the election.
What if I don’t vote here, can I just skip all this?
Kerry Sullivan, the town clerk for Lenox, gets this question a lot — especially from the town’s second homeowners.
“We’re gathering data for our vital reports that benefit the town and the residents,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said filling out the census is particularly helpful for the street lists the city makes every year. These lists are provided to first responders who use them to figure out who they need to search for or get in contact with during an emergency.
The population counts are also used for planning purposes. The number of children in the community is used to help school districts project and plan for upcoming enrollment. In Pittsfield, the number of residents who report as veterans is reported to the city’s veterans services office to plan programming and support for that community, as well.
“If we go for a grant, maybe to build a new park or to beautify the town or to get a new ambulance, you want to have the numbers that say why you need a new ambulance,” Sullivan said. “It’s almost like you have to become engaged — you don’t want a vacant address.”
OK, but why does my town need to know about my pets?
In some towns after all the required questions, you’ll see a column asking how many dogs and cats are in a household. Many cities, if they ask about pets, ask only about dogs as part of the state licensing requirement.
“A lot of cities use that to help them double check the people who own a dog and send them a reminder that they have to license their dogs,” Brazeau said. “We took [that question] off because we already send people dog license reminder postcards so why do it twice.”
Sullivan said that question helps provide data “from a public health standpoint as well.”
In Massachusetts, if your dog receives a rabies vaccine that information is shared by your vet with the city or town clerk. So if a community starts seeing a bunch of dogs reported on a census that they didn’t know about before, that could be an indicator that there’s a population of unvaccinated dogs in the town.
“If that dog bites somebody, we have to be able to find that dog to make sure he’s up-to-date with everything,” Sullivan said. “It’s a public health issue.”
How else are my answers used?
Residents can see direct benefits from participating in the census. The census is a permanent legal document that establishes legal residency. When veterans or their families apply for benefits or when college students apply for reduced rates through in-state tuition, the street list generated by the census is how those residency requirements are verified.
Is this information confidential?
That depends. The names, ages, political party affiliation and addresses of residents 17 years and older provided through the census are generally public information. No one will be given your census response form but your information will end up on the street list that can be provided to candidates running for public office.
Some local committees will ask for a head of household list to let residents know about important meetings — that info comes from the census. As a public document, anyone can go to the local clerk's office and ask to review the street list.
Brazeau and Sullivan said that in the rare times they receive these requests, they’re rather innocuous asks to look up a neighbor's address to send a card, send out invites to a block party, or form a local basketball league. And because these lists are permanent documents — meaning cities and towns never dispose of them — street lists can be a treasure trove of information for genealogists and local historians as well.
The one big asterisk on the availability of this information is for public safety officials and domestic violence survivors. State law allows public safety officials like judges, police officers, firefighters and FBI agents the ability to have their address and personal information unlisted on the street list. Residents with protective orders from the court or those living in a protective shelter are also unlisted on the public document.
What if I forget to fill it out or lose my form?
Talk to your city or town clerk. Clerks have until April 15 to generate a street list and June 15 to print out a list for public view. While clerks ask that you fill out the census within 10 days of receiving the form, that doesn’t mean the ship has sailed if you lose your census in the shuffle. The clerks’ offices can generally provide additional copies or links for communities that allow censuses to be filled out online.
