The coronavirus pandemic has impacted efforts across the United States, including Bartholomew County, to get as many people as possible to participate in the 2020 U.S. Census.
The U.S. Census Bureau has suspended field operations for the once-a-decade count of the nation’s population until April 15 and has pushed back the self-response period of the census from July 31 until Aug. 14 in an effort to help protect the health and safety of the public and its staff.
While some census operations may be on pause, the census is still taking place online and over the phone, and state and local officials are urging Indiana residents to spare a few minutes — that’s all they say it takes — to participate while hunkering down at home due to the spread of COVID-19.
The U.S. Census is taken every 10 years to determine representation in Congress and how some $675 billion in federal money is allocated for highway projects, Medicaid, food stamps, federal student loans, school lunches, low-income housing, among many other items, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Questions on the census questionnaire including a range of demographics questions such as the number of people living in a given household, their gender and sex, race, ethnicity, age, among other questions. The questionnaire can be filled out online at my2020census.gov or over the phone at 844-330-2020.
That funding, however, could change depending on how many people respond to the census, said Robin Hilber, assistant director of community development for the city of Columbus and chair of the Columbus 2020 Census Complete Count Committee.
In other words, the fewer people counted, the less money allocated to Indiana’s 6.7 million residents.
“I’m hopeful that people as they’re home, if they have that piece of mail, they go right on their computer, and fill it out right then, especially when they see the ease of doing that,” Hilber said. “But if they don’t fill it out, they will have somebody come to their door.”
As of April 2, around 43.6% of Bartholomew County households had responded to the U.S. Census forms mailed to them over the past few weeks, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The local response rate was lower than Indiana’s statewide response rate of 45%, but slightly higher than the national response rate of 41.3%.
Within the county, the response rates so far have differed considerably by area so far, ranging from 56.3% in the Parkside area around Rocky Ford Road and River Road to 32.1% in the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood area.
“In 2010, (the Lincoln-Central neighborhood area) only had a response rate of 27%, so fortunately we’ve already surpassed the 2010 rate,” Hilber said.
The outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent orders by states and cities to stay home and avoid other people came just as the census ramped up for most Americans two weeks ago, The Associated Press reported.
Before U.S. Census Bureau announced it would delay field operations, some workers were already in the field, according to wire reports. They were primarily dropping off paper questionnaires at places with no fixed addresses and large numbers of seasonal workers, or preparing for counts in a few weeks of the homeless, according to wire reports.
Now, census workers will not start knocking on the doors of households that have not responded online, by phone or mail until May 28, instead of May 13, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In addition, census workers are expected to start counting the nation’s homeless population starting May 1.
The Census Bureau has been aiming to hire as many as 500,000 workers for the 2020 census, but had 31,000 workers on the payroll as of March 18.
This is the first census that has encouraged most people to answer the questionnaire online, although respondents can also answer by telephone or mailing back a form, according to wire reports. The Census Bureau is hoping a strong self-response rate will decrease the need for census takers to knock on doors for face-to-face interviews this summer.
Currently, the U.S. Census Bureau says it is still on pace to deliver each state’s population total, which determines its number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, to President Donald Trump by Dec. 31 and deliver the local counts each state needs to complete legislative redistricting by April 1, 2021.
The bureau, however, has warned there could be additional delays as the pandemic evolves.
“The Census Bureau is delaying (field operations) a bit just because of COVID-19,” Hilber said. “They really don’t want to send their workers out, and my understanding is that several workers have actually tested positive. I don’t know if that was a result of the census or just a result of them just living their lives. I think they’re planning on delaying that a bit and giving people a chance to respond online, but I do believe that this summer, at some point, they will be sending out census workers to go door to door.”
“We’re encouraging people to just respond online because once they’ve responded, they don’t have to worry about anyone showing up at their door.”
Indiana, for its part, receives around $18 billion in federal funding each year based on population data from the U.S. Census Bureau — roughly $2,710 per person.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Gov. Eric Holcomb said the census is “critically important” to every city and town in Indiana and urged all Hoosiers to participate.
“This determines where funding is going and the make-up of our congressional delegation,” he said. “It has a lot to do with how funds are allocated to your city and town and to the state of Indiana. So while the federal government has rightly pushed back the deadline for that, you have at your means and disposal, the ability to fill out that information, whether it be on the phone or the internet.”
All personally identifying information provided to U.S. census workers is confidential, and every census worker takes an oath of office to not divulge any such information collected from participants, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
There is no citizenship question on the 2020 Census.
“The (U.S.) Census Bureau cannot and will not share responses with ICE agents, with law enforcement agents, with FBI, with landlords,” Hilber said.
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To respond to the 2020 U.S. Census, visit respond.census.gov/acs/#respond.
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