Check your mailbox, you may have already received a letter warning of the imminent arrival of your mandatory census questionnaire. But did you know that answering those questions is vitally important for the funding of local, regional and nationally funded programs? Or that the information you put in remains confidential for 70 years?

We discuss the history, purpose and power of the U.S. Census program with Irwine Clare from the Brooklyn Census Bureau and Sam Roberts, urban affairs correspondent for our partner The New York Times.