Time is ticking to gather census responses

September 22, 2020  |  By Ellery Mahlum | Community News Service

With just a few days left to respond to the 2020 census, Waterbury and Duxbury are beating the state’s average census response by a sizable margin. 

As of Sept. 20, Waterbury’s response rate was just over 71% and Duxbury’s is 69.7% compared to a statewide response rate of 60%. The deadline to participate in the 2020 census is Sept. 30.

The Vermont Complete Count Committee has focused on public outreach in a way that would elicit a response, but also not tread on important public health messages surrounding COVID-19. Now, with just nine days left before the deadline to respond, its message has turned from informative to urgent.

Census data is usually collected in the spring every 10 years, but due to COVID-19, the U.S. Census Bureau extended the 2020 census deadline to Sept. 30. The data is important for reapportioning Congressional districts and distributing federal funds, redistricting state legislative representation, and community planning on a local and state level. 

Michael Moser pushed to create a formal Vermont Complete Count Committee that creates public service announcements about the census to air on public radio stations. Now Moser is the state Complete Count Committee Coordinator and also works for the University of Vermont as a research specialist for the Center for Rural Studies. 

“We all pay into federal taxes, and that money comes back to us in the form of programs like social security, housing and urban development grants, transportation funding grants,” Moser said. “A lot of those rely on an equation that looks at the total population of a place and assigns dollars based on population.” 

Small towns like Waterbury benefit from government-supported programs that receive funds based on the census data said Steve Lotspeich, Waterbury’s community planner.

For example, the Community Development Block Grant program funds three affordable housing projects with over 50 apartments in Waterbury. Following Tropical Storm Irene, CDBG disaster recovery grants helped pay for the new municipal complex with new town offices, an expanded Waterbury Public Library, and a history center; other grants helped convert a former state office building into new affordable housing and expand and renovate Hunger Mountain Children’s Center. In addition to steering grant funding, census data play a role in town planning and zoning, Lotspeich said.

According to the 2020census.gov Response Rate map online, this year’s Waterbury and Duxbury self-response rates are better than each community’s participation in the 2010 census. Last time, 64.7% of Waterbury households and 67% of Duxbury households responded. 

Despite the variations, Vermont’s overall response this year is 60% -- on par with its final participation in 2010 which was recorded at 60.3%, according to the census website.

While Waterbury and Duxbury are seeing similar trends, other neighboring towns’ response rates vary. Middlesex and Stowe, for example, are listed with responses of 75.4% and 40% respectively. Both are higher than their 2010 participation and both track similarly to the last census when just over 71% of Middlesex households took part while Stowe saw just 34% participate. 

Moser attributes some of the variations to demographics but broad generalizations may be difficult to pin down among neighboring communities. “A higher prevalence of more highly educated folks, and higher incomes, those are indicators that lead to higher response in the census,” Moser said. 

This reasoning may broadly explain the differences in response rates between Chittenden County — Vermont’s  wealthiest and most urban county — and largely rural, Essex County in the Northeast Kingdom with lower education and income levels, Moser said. 

A look at census responses in the other four communities of the Harwood Union Unified School District, for example, find all of them so far behind their responses from the 2010 census. Warren has the lowest response rate of 25.6% compared with 28.2% in 2010; Fayston so far has had 42.4% respond; Waitsfield has had 57% and Moretown 68.6%, according to census data. 

Moser explained how gathering census data has been especially difficult this year. In the spring, getting the word out about the census was complicated, he said, because census officials were wary of competing with public health messaging about a deadly pandemic. 

“We were trying to get our message out in a way that would be heard, but would not tread on the message of COVID and public health response,” Moser said. 

As the Sept. 30 response deadline nears, Moser and his team have been trying to send a more urgent message to those who have not yet completed the census. They’re stressing that completing the census is a civic duty similar to voting in order to draw more people into participating.

To be counted in the 2020 Census visit my2020census.gov online or call 844-330-2020.Those who still have the questionnaire sent out in March may still mail it back to U.S. Census Bureau, National Processing Center, 1201 E 10th St., Jeffersonville, IN 47132.

Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting and Documentary Storytelling program.