The U.S. Census is important for all citizens of the United States to participate in. By responding to the census, people can help produce accurate and reliable statistics on characteristics of their community such as education, employment, infrastructure and economic opportunities. This information is helpful for local officials, policy makers, companies and organizations to understand and assess the resources and needs of people, places and businesses in communities across the entire country.
On Oct. 14 the Winthrop Alumni association held a panel on Facebook Live to answer some questions about the United States Census. The census is a survey conducted every ten years to accurately count all of the people in the state. Response to the census has a critical positively impact on the community. The panel helped to shed some light on what employees of the census bureau do to get as accurate a count as possible. The best way to help out with the census is to do a self-response, which is for a person to complete the survey on their own by sending it in via mail or online. This year South Carolina had a self response rate of 60.9 percent. Rock Hill alone had a self response rate of 65.9 percent.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the census is the backbone of all statistics in the U.S. and serves as a benchmark for many other surveys. It is important for all citizens to respond to the census to achieve accurate results. There are three ways that citizens can complete the survey. They can either mail in a response to the questionnaire, respond online, or by phone. This is the first census where there have been three ways to respond.
The Census Bureau hoped to ensure that as many people as possible knew about the census and would respond on their own, so that the bureau staff would not have to make as many house calls.
“There was a push of media interviews to make sure that we were reaching folks from all across the country,” said Ashlei Stevens, a member of the 2020 Census Media Relations. “Organizations called ‘Complete Count Committees’ helped spread the word through advertisements to make sure everyone was counted.”
In the last U.S. census there was an undercount of children under age five by nearly one million. Missing out on this information has a huge impact on funding, particularly for schools.
“To help us count children and avoid some of the undercount we experienced in 2010, we ask questions at the beginning of the interview related to the number of people in the household, and then near the end of the interview we ask one last time if there are any children or infants living in the house,” said Dominic Beamer, a branch chief of the U.S. Census Bureau. “We also have quality control components that help us if there are any discrepancies in the count.”
South Carolina had an overall response rate of 99.9 percent which is a phenomenal feat. Though the deadline to respond to the census has passed, anyone who would like to learn more about it can visit 2020census.gov to find out more information.
The staff of the census bureau had a particularly hard year due the pandemic, so getting people to respond on their own was extremely important.
“[T]aking five minutes of your time to respond today, will positively impact your community for the next ten years,” Stevens said.
