Home stretch for Census count
Monday, Aug 24, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* According to the US Census Bureau, Illinois ranked 7th in the nation for self-responses to the decennial count as of August 20th. Minnesota was first at 73.3 percent, Wisconsin was second at 70.5 percent and Illinois’ self-response rate was 69.1 percent. As you’ll see in a bit, though, the actual enumeration for Illinois is significantly higher.
From the Southern Illinoisan last week…
The Census response rate across Southern Illinois is abysmal, putting at risk millions of federal dollars for infrastructure improvements, education and social service programs. The low response rate could also dilute the region’s political representation in Congress and the state legislature as maps are redrawn following every decennial census count based on population.
As of Monday, only about 46% of Carbondale households had responded to the 2020 Census survey. The city estimates it loses about $1,600 for every person, per year that fails to respond — or $16,000 over a decade.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Carbondale Planning Director Chris Wallace, who also heads the Complete Count Committee. The census count concludes Sept. 30.
Carbondale isn’t the only community struggling on this front. Most Southern Illinois counties have a response rate significantly below that of the overall Illinois response rate of just shy of 69%. In Jackson County on the whole, the response rate to date is 56%. Three counties — Alexander, Pope and Hardin — have response rates under 50%. Hardin County’s is the lowest, with more than two-thirds of households not responding.
You can look up state and county self-response rates by clicking here.
* Capitol News Illinois…
The state’s 2010 census [self] response rate was 70.5 percent, giving organizers hope of passing that mark by the Sept. 30 deadline — a date recently moved forward one month by the Trump administration.
* Efforts are being made on the local level…
About one-third of Peoria households still have not responded to the federal census.
And with census takers ending their work on Sept. 30, a month earlier than previously planned, it’s getting down to crunch time — resulting in local officials trying to find new ways to reach residents and get them to respond to the once-a-decade national survey.
One plan involves recruiting volunteers to go out into neighborhoods themselves, supplementing existing door-to-door census takers, to boost the number of responses.
Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity, the local agency that’s serving as an outreach partner, is looking for such volunteers to go out for a few hours, likely on Saturday, Sept. 12, to do so.
* And…
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin has issued an urgent call for census outreach volunteers to reach hard-to-count neighborhoods and boost participation in the once-in-a-decade population survey. […]
Illinois’ response rate — 69% — currently ranks No. 7 in the country, according to the federal bureau. Nearly 72% of Aurora households have responded. […]
Volunteers will fan out to 25 neighborhoods to bring reminders in both English and Spanish, starting Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon. Another round of outreach will begin 2 p.m. Sept. 25. Caputo will join volunteers on that date.
“We are moving beyond the online reminders and the postcards reminders to making the personal connection needed to bring home the point that we need a complete count,” Irvin said.
* The personal connection works…
Recent door-to-door efforts to collect Census information have significantly improved West Virginia’s response to the 10-year count.
While the “self-response” rate to the Census in West Virginia was just more than 55%, one of the lowest rates in the nation, the success of the recent door-to-door campaign has boosted the response rate to 84.5 percent. […]
The U.S. Census Household Response ranking has Idaho number one followed by West Virginia, Washington, Connecticut and Illinois the top five. A report shows 29.1% of West Virginia’s count has come in the follow-up personal contact category. [Emphasis added.]
According to that report, which is five days old, Illinois is at 81.1 percent enumerated.
* Related…
* Mail Delays Could Hurt The Census, Too
- bogey golfer - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 10:57 am:
Pardon my igorance, but could someone explain to me WHY they are not responding, given how it affects the legislative districts and funding on a federal and state level.
- Annonin' - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:03 am:
Mr/Ms bogey golfer:
Perhaps they reside on the same household that counts non mask wearers, party goers or as we heard one doc from MN describe “the stupid”
- Don't Bloc Me In - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:07 am:
The temporarily-employed census takers have hit the streets and started driving the rural roads in just the past 2-3 weeks…in the middle of growing COVID numbers and in the August heat and humidity. Oh, yes, with all the political tension, too. Imagine what that job must be like. I know everyone reading this will be kind to that person who might knock on your door.
- Commisar Gritty - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:12 am:
Nice
- Jocko - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:26 am:
Thanks Rich for the PSA. With high speed internet and smartphone use, there is absolutely no reason why our census response rate should be 90% or higher.
You’d think the IPI and the ‘We’re taxed too much’ crowd should be encouraging everyone to complete the census to obtain federal funds.
- very old soil - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:28 am:
If southern Illinois keeps responding at this rate the Hateful Eight might become the Frightened Four.
- rentoria sanatoria - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:32 am:
Trumpworld. Republicans have bred distrust in government institutions in these areas for many years. Why would anybody be surprised that participation in these places would be so low? Once census is done, and additional representation and funding is denied people in these areas, it will only fuel their mistrust. What an awful perpetual motion machine the republicans have created.
- Dysfunction Junction - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:35 am:
“I know everyone reading this will be kind to that person who might knock on your door.”
@Don’t Bloc - at the risk of sounding presumptuous, I’m guessing everyone reading this has already submitted their census information. It’s the people who aren’t as engaged that need the in-person follow-up.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:39 am:
===Pardon my igorance, but could someone explain to me WHY they are not responding===
There’s a lot of potential factors which can include everything from not knowing about the census, being uncomfortable with submitting that information online, or randomly through the mail, to just not doing it.
In terms of folks not making the decision that is best for them — especially in an abstract big picture kind of way — I think the fact we can’t get the yahoos to wear masks during a pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of our country people is pretty illustrative of the fact that some folks just won’t. They won’t today, they won’t tomorrow, they won’t ever.
There’s a lot of won’t in their lives right now.
This might be the first time where the administration of the Census has also been done so blatantly to try to game the results, too. Even with high response rates we might be in a place that requires us to consider whether or not the information is false if abundantly conservative states that have had shrinking populations unexpectedly retain seats.
- southernIllinoisBob - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 11:46 am:
Representative Fowler and Vienna High School had students,without masks, out promoting the census inside local stores. They have a picture of them in a Casey’s, only person wearing the mask was the the Casey’s employees. Our numbers in Johnson County will be going up if stunts like this keep happening.
- Saluki1964 - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 1:10 pm:
Census taker training only started August 5th in Carbondale. My daughter was hired back in March to be one and received a call late July to set up training. Then received a voice mail that she was double booked for training. She called them back and that person didn’t know why someone would have told her that, she was scheduled for XXX date. She went to training on XXX and they told her she wasn’t on the training list and she couldn’t stay for the training. There were no more than five people in the room. No one has called her to find out why she hasn’t taken the training.
Lots of people will not be counted in this census.
- Not a Billionaire - Monday, Aug 24, 20 @ 4:20 pm:
Wonder if the poor response rate is similarly poor in areas like Southern Illinois …look like it WV was made before the outreach.