Apr 4, 2020 4 min read

The people who conducted a decennial census in the early 19th century may not have known how 190 years into the future Appalachian historian Samuel J. Richards would find their work helpful.

But it was. He drew on that information for an article he published last year about Philip Doddridge, who grew up near West Middletown and was a congressman for part of the Ohio Valley, present-day West Virginia, for several years.

“Long-term the Census is an excellent primary source for historians and family genealogists,” said Richards, who’s from Bentleyville, in an email. He’s staying there now because of the global COVID-19 outbreak. Richards teaches history and politics at the Shanghai American School, in the eponymous Chinese city. “For example, the 1830 census helped me confirm that Appalachian advocate Philip Doddridge had a house slave in Wellsburg while he criticized plantation slave owners in Richmond. Fifty years from now, the 2020 Census could provide historians helpful clues regarding migration during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Even as the illness and precautions to prevent its spread complicate matters, the U.S. Census Bureau is proceeding with this decade’s survey. The results will be useful to academics like Richards, but not just to them. The population statistics factor into hundreds of billions of dollars in federal allotments to state and local governments every year.

Wednesday was the date, April 1, that provides a reference for people to use when answering questions about their household when they complete census forms. Addresses across the country were mailed forms last month with instructions on how to respond to questions.

“Census Day is not like Election Day,” said Roxanne Wallace, the bureau’s assistant regional manager in the area that includes Southwestern Pennsylvania. “You can still respond after April 1. We want people to do the Census as soon as you can, and are taking responses for several months.”

So far, the Census Bureau’s figures for responses show that Pennsylvania, with 44.3% of households responding so far, ahead of the national average for self-responses, which is 42.8%.

In the counties that make up the southwestern corner of the state, the response rates are 44.6% in Washington County, 37.7% in Fayette and 34.5% in Greene.

The overall mail-in response rate for the 2010 Census was 79.3% nationwide. This decade is the first when nearly all Americans can respond online.

Wallace said the agency wants to be clear about how it is counting students in colleges and universities. Many of the pupils who’d normally live at school are probably at home right now.

“If you live in student housing, there’s no need to do anything,” Wallace said. “The Census Bureau is working with your college to count you. If the students live off campus, be sure to respond online. Use the address where you lived all semester, and be sure to include all your roommates in your response.”

Later this month, census workers will start working with administrators of post-secondary institutions, nursing homes, prisons and other group housing facilities to count the residents of those.

The agency will start sending paper questionnaires to non-responsive households on April 8.

People who don’t want to respond online for this cycle can respond by phone or mail, too. They should be wary of anyone who does call their home or ask for certain information – including Social Security, bank account and credit card numbers – and claims to represent the agency.

“We want to make sure that people understand that for the phone calls, we will not call you to initiate the call,” Wallace said. “We are asking people to take note that the Census Bureau will not call the households to respond. We want to ensure that people are initiating the calls.”