Census Collection To Conclude One Month Early
The U.S. Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month sooner than previously announced, the bureau’s director confirmed last week in a statement. That includes critical door-knocking efforts and collecting responses online, over the phone and by mail.
The latest updates to the bureau’s plans are part of efforts to “accelerate the completion of data collection and apportionment counts by our statutory deadline of December 31, as required by law,” bureau director Steven Dillingham said in the written statement.
These last-minute changes to the constitutionally mandated count of every person living in the U.S. threaten the accuracy of population numbers used to determine the distribution of political representation and federal funding for the next decade.
With roughly 4 out of 10 households nationwide yet to be counted and delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, the bureau now has less than two months left to try to reach people of color, immigrants, renters, rural residents and other members of historically undercounted groups who are not likely to fill out a census form on their own.
The response rate in Montana lags behind many other states and the national rate of return is 63.2 percent compared to a 56.8 percent return rate in Montana.
In Valley County, the rate of return is just 39.3. Roosevelt County is even lower at 33.6 percent. Montana’s more populous counties are doing much better with Yellowstone at 70.7 percent and Missoula County at 67.8 percent.
