PUSH ON for self-counting in 2020 census.
People around the nation continue to hunker down to one degree or another as the nation and the world determine if the coronavirus pandemic is beginning to abate or just getting its second wind.
Along with economies around the globe left in tatters, the pandemic has shredded scheduling of the nation’s once-a-decade accounting of how many people are in the U.S. and where they live.
For those who self-respond to the census, a new feature is the ability to do so online, which officials hope will encourage more households to follow through. Participation is mandatory, and those who fail to self-respond must be counted by thousands of in-person canvassers who would normally be deploying everywhere from urban neighborhoods to rural settings. However, because of covid-19, that canvassing has been pushed further and further back.
Self-response, which began March 12 and was originally scheduled to end July 31, has been extended for an
additional three months to Oct. 31. Census takers were originally scheduled to deploy on May 13 to be in the field through July 31, but currently are not scheduled to deploy until Aug. 11, and to be active in the field through Oct. 31.
But, because of the many unknowns about the novel coronavirus and the evolving nature of the pandemic, officials are working to increase self-response rates, partly because of concern about missing people during the field operations and partly out of concern that ultimately, there may be no field operations.
“I think that’s certainly a possibility,” said Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, a member of the state Complete Count Committee. “I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to go door-todoor right now. Or even, for that matter, I couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to open their door.”
Since the emergence of the virus, Leding said he has used his position on the committee to disseminate information about the census via social media and stress the need for people to self-respond. That’s partly out of concern that if the virus has a resurgence, the self-response count may be the best count that will be available for the 2020 census.
“That’s kind of been my tact, to use social media to try and spread information,” he said. “Since I’m active on social media and have a little bit of following, I just try to spread information and updates, and encourage people to apply and to remind them.”
George McGill, mayor of Fort Smith and chairman of the state Complete Count Committee, said self-response rates are calculated using the latest population estimates available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
As of May 1, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the national self-response rate was 55.6%. Arkansas lags behind at 50.6%, placing it 38th in the nation for self-response.
Around the nation, Minnesota had the highest response rate at 66.2%. Washington County, Wisconsin, was the top ranked county in the nation, with a response rate of 76.8%, and the top ranked municipality in the nation was North River, N.D., with a response rate of 100%.
In Arkansas, Benton County was No. 1 in the state, with a self-response rate of 59.8%. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the estimated population in Benton County in 2019 was 279,141. Newton County, population 7,753, had the lowest response rate in the state, with just 9.6% responding by May 1.
Among municipalities, Bella Vista, population 28,661, has the highest self-response rate in Arkansas, at 74.6%. The lowest response rate was the tiny Izard County community of Guion, population 81, with a self-response rate of 2.3%.
Twenty-one counties in Arkansas — Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Faulkner, Franklin, Garland, Greene, Hot Spring, Independence, Lonoke, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Sebastian, Washington, and White — had self-response rates above 50%, ranging from 59.8% in Benton County to 50.1% in Carroll County.
Four counties — Calhoun, Izard, Newton and Woodruff — had self-response rates below 30%, ranging from 27% in Woodruff County to 9.6% in Newton County.
The remaining 50 of the state’s counties ranged between 32.2% responding in Lafayette County in south Arkansas to 48.9% responding in Poinsett County in northeast Arkansas.
The deadline for self-responding to the U.S. Census by mail, telephone or online is Oct. 31.
McGill said Arkansas is at risk of an undercount in the census even in normal times and the pandemic raises that risk substantially.
“We’ve typically been an undercounted state because of some of our unique demographics,” he said. “We are predominantly a rural state. We’re considered a hard-tocount state, and people fall into various categories, including hard to locate, sometimes they’re hard to contact, and sometimes they’re hard to persuade to participate in the census.”
McGill said, in addition, a significant number of people in the state are not fluent in English and there are a lot of younger people who tend to move about and often don’t get counted.
“And, needless to say, we have a fair number of people who have a general distrust of government,” he said.