U.S. Census 2020: One year and counting
For the first time in its nearly 230-year history, the U.S. Census Bureau will allow people being counted to answer questions online.
Sheila Beasley, Pittsburgh partnership specialist for the Census Bureau, Philadelphia regional census center, recently told the Washington County commissioners of this development that will be coming in 2020.
But that doesn’t mean the Census Bureau will be relying only on electronic media.
“You’ll be notified through the mail that the 2020 Census is approaching,” she said. Choosing to respond via the internet will be voluntary. Enumeration will also take place by mail, over the phone and in person, according to Beasley.
The commissioners resolved to support the 2020 census through promotion, education, public outreach and organizing technical assistance through June 2020.
April 1, 2019, marks a yearlong countdown to the decennial census, a constitutionally-mandated function that determines the number of congressional seats and Electoral College votes a state has. It is also used to reapportion state legislative districts, determining areas eligible for housing assistance and rehabilitation loans, planning for schools and designing facilities for people with disabilities, the elderly and children.
The 2010 census determined the allocation of $675 billion in federal grants and loans to tribal, state and local governments. Local governments use census information for public safety and emergency preparedness.
In the private sector, for example, it helps potential home buyers to research demographic information about communities. Corporations use the data for market research and to aid in their determination when seeking locations for commercial enterprises.
Current answers to census questions are protected by federal law. They can only be used to produce statistics.
Whether the census can include a question about citizenship has yet to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
According to the “72-Year Rule,” the National Archives releases census records to the general public 72 years after Census Day. The 1930 census records were released April 1, 2002, and the 1940 records were released April 2, 2012. The 1950 census records will be released in April 2022.
Beasley, whose zone includes Washington, Greene, Fayette, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, participated in the public comment segment of a recent county commissioners meeting to stress the importance of a complete count.
She also spread the word that the Census Bureau is recruiting, requiring a half-million people to handle not just enumeration, but administration, supervisory and information technology tasks.
Jeff Leithauser, development manager for the Washington County Planning Commission, is the point person for the census within Washington County government.
It’s part of his job to encourage local entities such as school districts and municipalities to promote participation in the census by forming a “complete count” committee.
“Failure to count residents could result in a substantial loss of revenue for the next decade,” the U.S. Census 2020 warns in one of its handouts.
In 2010, Washington County’s census response rate was 82 percent, Leithauser said, better than that of the nation as a whole, which was 79 percent.
Counting the homeless and ex-offenders can be a challenge.
Washington County’s population in 1800 was 28,298. It peaked in 1960 at 217,271 and stood at 207,820 in 2010. That year, two townships, Jefferson and Peters, had the highest response rates in the county at 88 percent. Peters had what’s known as a complete count committee, but Jefferson did not. Marianna Borough, which did not form a committee, had the lowest response rate in 2010 at just 57 percent, while California Borough, which did have a committee, had the second-lowest response rate at 64 percent.
The nation’s population grew from 5.3 million in 1800 to 308.7 million in 2010.
Joshua Hatfield, Washington County finance director, calculated the total federal dollars received by Washington County government at $27,858,392 in 2017. The figure does not include school districts, Leithauser said.
The Washington County Redevelopment Authority, an entity separate from county government, received several allocations in 2018 that are based on census data, including: $3,477,368 from the Community Development Block Grant program; $632,569 from the federal Home Investment Partnership grant, and $284,470 through the Emergency Solutions grant.