In honor of Constitution Day, Shorter College wants to highlight one of the important tenants of the United States Constitution, the United States census.

A census is the procedure of systematically numbering and recording information about the members of a given population.

This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses, and the word is of Latin origin.

As far back as during the Roman Republic, the census was a list that kept track of all adult males fit for military service.

And you may remember from the Bible that is was a census that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ would be born.

As mandated by the U.S. Constitution, our nation gets just one chance each decade to count its population.

The 2020 census requires counting an increasingly diverse and growing population of around 330 million people in more than 140 million housing units.

The information the census collects helps determine how more than $675 billion of federal funding is distributed to states and communities each year, along with the number of representatives each state can maintain in the US House of Representatives.

With the powers to shape the nation for the future based on the issues and attitudes of today, it is extremely important that you take to time to stand up and be counted.

Visit data.census.gov for more information on the importance of being counted, and how you can ensure you and your family are not left out of the count.