You should care about the census

The census: A once-a-decade count of the population that the government harps on you to fill out for about a year and you forget to do it anyway.

Many of us don’t understand why the census is so important. All we know is the government spends a lot of money to cram our mailboxes with reminders and — eventually — the dreaded form itself and to send disturbingly cheerful people to knock on our doors. (Does anyone even answer their door anymore?)

Here’s what the census does: It counts as many people as humanly possible — hopefully everyone — and record those numbers on different scales. Basically, by the time the census is done, we should know how many people there are in the country, in our state, in our county and in our municipality. We should also get an idea of each area’s demographics, such as people’s age, sex, marital status, race, income and education and what languages spoken at home. That’s not to say that any Joe Shmoe can know the age, sex, race, income, etc., of the individual people in your household. But it can tell us things like 50.5% of West Virginia’s population is female, according to census.gov.

Why is the census important? Because it determines how many representatives each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives, guides redistricting and influences how much federal funding states get.

You know how West Virginians complain about having no voice on the national scale? Right now, West Virginia only has three representatives in D.C. (we’re not counting senators). And the Brennan Center for Justice anticipates we are going to lose seats based on the 2020 census. The three we have now are based on 2010 data at 65% participation. If we can get higher participation for this census, we might actually gain a seat in the House.

There’s about $900 billion in federal funding to be distributed, and the census determines how much of that money each state gets. This also includes Medicaid reimbursement. According to Tracy Gordon at the Tax Policy Center, “Here’s why the census matters for Medicaid: If you undercount a state’s population, you overstate how much income each resident has, all else being equal. This makes a state look economically better off than it is, and its reimbursements for Medicaid [and other federal medical assistance] would go down.”

The census contributes to the allocation of other funds as well. Like Medicare, food stamps and Pell grants for students, according to the Council for Foreign Policy. Oh, and did we mention some of that $900 billion goes to highway construction and maintenance? Kind of like you’re not allowed to complain about elected officials if you don’t vote, now you won’t be allowed to complain about the roads in West Virginia if you don’t participate in the census.

So please, fill out your census. This year, households can fill out a census online or you can fill out a paper copy, which should arrive in your mail soon if it hasn’t already. And census-takers (those disturbingly cheerful people who knock on your door) are hopeful they’ll be able to hit the pavement in July.

Coronavirus has messed up everything else; don’t let it ruin the census.