LUCA 2030 will be digital-only; Census outlines prep, review, feedback and appeals schedule

Moe Salem, a geographer in the Census Bureau's address sourcing and policy branch, gave a detailed briefing on LUCA for the 2030 Census. He said LUCA, authorized by the Census Improvement Act (Public Law 103-430), is an opportunity for eligible governmental units to review a Census Bureau address list and to add, delete or move residential addresses prior to the 2030 enumeration. "This activity only occurs once every 10 years," he said.

Salem described a coverage-based and data-driven LUCA for 2030 that asks governments to compare block-level address counts from their own systems to Census-published block count lists and to use new tools (including an address matching service and a LUCA module in the geocoder) to identify where effort is required. He said the Bureau will require latitude/longitude for addresses at submission and that the process this decade will be digital-only.

He laid out a phased timeline: a LUCA prep phase (May–August 2027) during which GUPS Web will give controlled access to Title 13 address list data for training and matching; the main LUCA review window (October 2027–March 2028) when participants can submit edits; the feedback and appeals phase beginning March 2029 with a 60‑day Office of Management and Budget review for appeals; and a formal closeout in September 2029 when participant access to confidential LUCA materials will end. Salem encouraged jurisdictions to use published block-count lists, share parcel data and coordinate with neighboring governments to limit duplicate effort.