New Jersey's second-largest city has its eye on 2020.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop announced Monday that the city will establish an office within the Division of Planning dedicated to ensuring that its population is accurately counted during the 2020 U.S. Census.

The move comes as the city continues to contend that it was undercounted by more than 40,000 residents in the 2010 Census, and that several high-rise buildings were missed entirely during that count. The new office, which will be staffed with new hires, planning employees, interns, and temporary staff, will be tasked with updating the residential mailing address list to be used by the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure that new buildings have been added.

"We know that Jersey City was significantly undercounted in the 2010 Census and this administration will not allow that to happen under our watch," Fulop said in a statement. "We only get one opportunity to do this right. The importance of an accurate census count cannot be understated, as millions of dollars is at stake and this data lasts with a city for 10 years."

Jersey City officials point to the billions of dollars in federal funding doled out to state and local governments each year based on census population statistics. New Jersey's second-largest municipality wants its fair share.

Jersey City's population has been climbing steadily since 1980 when 223,532 residents were counted. That year's tally revealed a population figure that was down significantly from 50 years earlier when more than 316,000 residents were counted in the 1930 Census.

The establishment of the new office comes during one of Jersey City's largest building booms. City officials say Jersey City, which currently has 10,000 units under construction and 16,000 more that have been approved, is poised to overtake Newark as the state's most populous city. As of 2016, Jersey City's population was estimated to be 264,152, while Newark was 281,764 - or a gap of roughly 18,000 people.

According to current U.S. Census Bureau data, there will be 128,355 dwelling units in Jersey City by 2020. The number recorded in 2010 was 106,937 - a difference of 21,418 units or more than 43,000 people.

"We have already been meeting with representatives of the U.S. Census Bureau and will do all that we can on our end now to make sure we have an accurate count," Annisia Cialone, the Jersey City planning director, said in a statement.