The government is taking steps to make sure everyone counts this year.

U.S. Census forms are arriving in area mailboxes.

It's time to be counted and the government wants everyone to fill out the forms that are arriving in mailboxes across the U.S. Officials say the ten question form takes about ten minutes to complete.

Mark Culver, Houston Co. Commission Chairman, says, “there's a provision in there for everyone at the address to be counted we need you to do that we need everyone that lives there to be counted.”

Census data determines how many seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives. Every year the government can allocate more than $300 billion to states and communities based in part on census data.

“It's essential to our community, it's essential to our state that we receive fair representation, that we receive fair funding and the only way to do that is by knowing how many people live in our region,” says Culver.

Residents seem positive about the form and say they want to be counted. All of the people I questioned say they plan to fill it out. Some have already returned the form.

Gail Woodham, a resident of Bonifay, Florida, says, “We're all Americans and that's a part of being an American we all need to fill out the census.”

Allen Keel, a resident of Slocomb, Alabama, says, “I want to get help for the county and the city that I live in because if they don't know how many people are in the county and the city that you live in you won't receive any help.”

The form is being mailed to people with physical street addresses.

Anyone with a P.O. box or no physical address will need to fill out a form at a complete count site which will be set up in early April in post offices, libraries and other locations.

Census workers will be going door to door in April, May and June to collect data from anyone who hasn't returned a form.

Census forms should be returned to the government no later than April 1.