Census 2010: Are you counted?

Updated 23m ago
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY

Wednesday is Census Day in the USA — the day that counts for counting where every American lives.

Now, the tough work for Census takers begins.

About 62 million households, or 52%, have mailed in the 10-question form that counts residents and gathers demographic data.

Census officials expect a surge in returns now that it's April 1 because the forms specifically ask who lives where on this date.

2010 CENSUS: Full coverage

"A very important burden we have now is to tell people who haven't gotten to it yet that it's not too late to mail it back," Census Director Robert Groves says.

A replacement form will be mailed starting today to many households that haven't returned the original. Some will inevitably reach homes that have responded — something Groves expects will rile critics of the $14.7 billion Census. "It's never been done before," Groves says of the second mailing. "It will give us a boost that 2000 didn't have."

Then the Census Bureau will begin chasing the hardest to count. About 650,000 workers will be deployed next month to knock on the doors of those who haven't return the form or didn't fill it out completely.

Participation has been varied. Some places trail the national rate while others have already topped their final 2000 rate.

To stoke civic competition, the bureau is highlighting the laggards in a torrent of news releases: Birmingham and Montgomery in Alabama; Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven in Connecticut; Elizabeth, Jersey City and Newark in New Jersey; Brownsville and Laredo in Texas; Anchorage; Chicago; Detroit; Miami; and New Orleans.

The Census hopes to match the 72% participation rate by mail in 2000, but it faces major hurdles:

• Those who don't want to participate at all or ignore some of the questions. Some libertarians and conservatives, including Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, argue that people should answer only one question: how many are in the household.

At the same time, the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, is urging illegal immigrants to boycott the Census unless Congress changes immigration laws. The Census Bureau is required to count all residents — not just U.S. citizens.

If forms are returned incomplete or not at all, Census workers will call or show up to collect the information. Every percentage point in mail response saves an estimated $85 million in follow-up costs, the bureau says. The number of forms that are partially filled out is "not looking unusually large," Groves says.

• Those who move from place to place for their jobs. The count of people in "transitory places" is underway in RV parks, campgrounds and marinas.

• Those who don't have a home. Census workers this week are counting people in shelters and soup kitchens and in areas where they sleep outdoors or in their cars.

•Those who live in group settings. Forms are delivered today to thousands who live in prisons, nursing homes, college dorms, barracks and other such facilities.

State populations from the 2010 Census have to be submitted to President Obama by Dec. 31. They will be used to reallocate states' seats in the House of Representatives. The data also will be used to distribute more than $400 billion a year in federal aid.

That's why communities are pushing for a high response rate, and some are succeeding:

• Some Indian reservations, which traditionally have not been receptive to the Census, already have hit a response rate higher than their final rate in 2000: the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation in Texas at 62% (53% in 2000); the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation in California is above 50% (47% in 2000). "There's much more outreach," says Mellor Willie, executive director of the National American Indian Housing Council.

The National Congress of American Indians launched the Indian Country Counts campaign last year.

• Brunswick County, N.C., a coastal area north of Myrtle Beach, S.C., is a collection of rural and urbanizing towns that has grown 48%, to 107,062, since 2000. Its participation rate is already 10 points above the 46% then. Most of the county's revenue comes from tourism, but the area now is home to more year-round residents such as retirees.

"It's not seasonal anymore. It's seasoned," says Leslie Bell, planning director. The population is more educated, and the growing demand for roads, water and sewers has driven home the need to be counted to get public funds that are based on population, he says.

• Lewis County Commissioner Carroll Keith can't quite figure out why his corner of Idaho topped its 2000 participation so early — 54% vs. 50%. There hasn't been much hoopla, just a few Census fliers on the bulletin board in the county building in Nez Perce. "Part of it is that it's a real simple questionnaire," says Carroll, whose company makes leveling systems for combines. "It's 10 simple questions. It takes a minute."

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