Local officials are making a final push to get as many people as possible to take the 2020 U.S. Census, as response rates are still lagging in some of Bartholomew County’s more economically unstable areas with just 10 days left before the deadline.
The U.S. Census is taken every 10 years to determine representation in Congress. It also determined how some $675 billion in federal money is allocated to states and local communities for education, Medicaid, food assistance, roads, playgrounds, after-school programs, low-income housing, among many other initiatives, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Indiana receives around $18 billion in federal funding each year based on population data from the U.S. Census Bureau — roughly $2,710 per person.
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.
The deadline to respond is Sept. 30.
“We won’t have another opportunity for another 10 years to increase our numbers,” Hilber said. “It’s really vital that people respond because those who are in most need are the one who will affected if they don’t respond. I’m just trying to make a last-gasp effort to get the word to anyone who might respond.”
As of this past week, nearly half of the county’s census tracts were reporting a drop in their self-response rates compared to 2010, although the overall response rate within the county was slightly higher than 10 years ago.
The largest decrease so far has been in Lincoln-Central Neighborhood area, where 58.5% of households had responded to the census online, by phone or by mail as of Sept. 15, compared to 62.5% in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
By comparison, just over 87.7% of households in the area in the Parkside area around Rocky Ford Road and River Road had responded as of Thursday.
Overall, 72.4% of Bartholomew County households had responded to the U.S. Census — 22nd highest out of Indiana’s 92 counties, up from 70.5% in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A total of 74.2% of households in Columbus had responded over as of Thursday, up from 71.5% in 2010.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Census Bureau temporarily suspended field operations due to the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and pushed back wrapping up field operations for the once-a-decade head count from the end of July to the end of October.
However, the U.S. Census Bureau announced plans in August to cut short its schedule for data collection for the census by a month after legislation that would have extended the deadlines stalled in Congress, The Associated Press reported.
The deadline for census takers to knock on doors to follow up with people who haven’t responded to the census questionnaires mailed out earlier this year is now Sept. 30, instead of Oct. 31.
The Census Bureau said it decided to cut short its data collection schedule so it can meet the end-of-the-year deadline. The Census Bureau has until Dec. 31 to turn in numbers used for redrawing congressional districts.
As of last week, 34.1% of U.S. households and 30.3% of Indiana households hadn’t yet responded. Some of the 500,000 door knockers hired by the Census Bureau have begun visiting those households.
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.
There are no questions about immigration status on the questionnaire, Tim Swarens, media specialist at the U.S. Census Bureau, told The Republic in a previous interview.
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, Swarens said.
“If they were to breach that (oath), they could face significant prison time and/or a fine,” he said, adding that “there will not be a citizenship question on the 2020 census.”
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Visit 2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond.html for more information on how to respond to the 2020 U.S. Census.
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