Census headcount moves into second phase

As the Census headcount moves into its second phase, response rates from most Cache County communities continue to exceed state and national averages.

CACHE COUNTY – With plenty of time on their hands while stuck at home, Utahns are responding to the 2020 Census questionnaire in record numbers.

Following the initial online phase of its once-a-decade headcount of American residents, Census officials report that the national rate of response to their 20-item personal questionnaire now stands at 48 percent.

The statewide response rate for Utah, however, is 54 percent. At 60 percent, the response rate for Cache County ranks third highest among Utah’s 29 counties, exceeded only by 65 percent response rates from Davis and Morgan counties.

The national headcount officially began in mid-March, when instructions for completing the Census questionnaire online were sent to nearly 140 million American households, according to spokesperson Coralys M. Ruiz Jimenez.

The Census’ second phase is now in progress, Ruiz Jimenez explains, following the mailing of hard copies of the personal survey to every household that had not already responded by April 8.

Census officials are hoping that the early April mailing will prompt another wave of replies that will boost the national response rate significantly, since their ability to follow-up with in-person visits in the Census third phase has been indefinitely delayed due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Ironically, the worldwide pandemic seems to be having some positive effect on the Census.

The current national response rate is far ahead of the pace of responses at this point a decade ago. In 2010, it took until Oct. 21 for 74 percent of American households to self-respond to the Census questionnaire.

Officials believe that the more rapid pace of response in 2020 is due to two factors. The first is that the 2020 questionnaire was available online; the 2010 Census was only distributed by mail. The other factor is that the social distancing and self-isolation guidelines now in effect in most states have severely limited distractions outside the home.

Cache County’s response rate to the Census might have been even higher if Census organizers had not excluded the communities of Clarkston, Mendon, Millville and Paradise from the first two phases of the national headcount. Once the much-delayed face-to-face portion of the Census began, Ruiz Jimenez adds, the plan was that every household in such smaller communities would be visited by Census workers.

Despite their planned exclusion, residents of those communities have still responded to the opportunity to complete the Census online at surprising rates. As of April 12, the response rate was 40 percent from Paradise, 30 percent from Millville, 28.5 percent from Mendon and only 15.6 percent from Clarkston.

The response rates from other Cache County communities stand at 74 percent from Hyde Park; 73 percent from River Heights; 68 percent from Providence; 67 percent from Nibley and Smithfield; 65 percent from Wellsville; 64 percent from Hyrum, Lewiston and Richmond; 59 percent from Amalga; 58 percent from Logan; and 54 percent from Trenton.

Census officials say that the third phase of the national headcount with in-person visits to households will begin when social distancing guidelines due to the threat of Coronavirus infection are relaxed.

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