Self response rates ranked second worst in country
Putting aside for a moment the impact of COVID-19, there’s good news and bad news when it comes to 2020 Census efforts.
The good news — as of Saturday afternoon, Monongalia County is among the top counties in West Virginia at 42.2% in terms of self response rate. Wood County currently tops the state at 49.3%, while McDowell County sits at 3.1%.
The bad news — at 34.8%, West Virginia tops only Alaska (31.5%) in terms of statewide self response rates thus far. The national average is 47.5%
Unfortunately, that’s not new territory. The state had the second lowest participation rate in 2010, at 65%. Again, only Alaska was worse, at 64%. The national average was 74%.
The billions in federal funding riding on the decennial count — some $6.7 billion from 2010 for programs like Medicaid, SNAP, Medicare Part B and highway planning and construction — are based on the statewide numbers.
“We’re proud of where we stand county-wise, but we really want to get that state level way up,” Mike augh said.
Paugh is heading up census efforts for Monongalia County. Along with census representatives, Paugh is working with Skylar Braithwaite from the City of Morgantown and Ron Justice of WVU, who also sits on the statewide complete count committee.
Paugh said the goal now is letting people know the Census is moving forward despite some of the hurdles caused by COVID-19, like delays in the delivery of invitations and ID numbers to those using P.O. boxes.
Everyone who hasn’t filled out the census survey online should have received, or will soon receive, a form in the mail. You can also complete the survey over the phone.
“I think the big message we’re all trying to get out is it’s so easy. It can be done online, on the phone … It’s so easy to do this year. They’ve made it so easy,” Justice said, explaining that any response up until door-to-door tabulators go out is considered self-reported.
Justice said it could be as late as July before tabulators begin circulating due to the ongoing viral pandemic.
He also noted that counting college students — traditionally difficult in the best of times — has been made easier as the census bureau is now asking all universities to use what’s called a group quarter count, which will be submitted directly by the university.
“Any WVU-owned or leased facility for housing, including fraternities and sororities, they’ll all be counted in a group count. So that’s going to be very advantageous for us. Because we can do it as one submission,” Justice said. “So that’s roughly between 6,500 and up to about 7,000 students. That’s a big part of our Morgantown on-campus student population.”
Justice also noted the university is undertaking an aggressive messaging campaign to let students know their college address is what should be included in census data.
The major point echoed by Braithwaite, Justice and Paugh is that this count helps determine the state’s future.
“People can’t imagine just how much this means as far as our federal funding,” Justice said. “This is critical to what the community looks like for the next 10 years.”
According to Census data available online, area municipal self response rates are currently Westover (46%), Star City (44.9%), Morgantown (34.5%), Blacksville (11.4%) and Granville (1.9%).
Census forms and self response numbers can be found at 2020census.gov.
