County’s response rate still lags as Census nears end

ROCKINGHAM — The response window for the 2020 Census is closing quickly, and Richmond County’s lagging 53.1% self-response rate will prove costly if it doesn’t get significantly better.

Responses to the Census are required by law. The Census counts every person living in the U.S. and the five U.S. territories — American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Census data is critical on national, state and local levels. The data is used to determine how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives, and it is also used to draw congressional and state legislative districts. It also helps determine where federal funds are distributed to.

Members of the Lumber River Council of Governments (LRCOG) were told on Thursday that each non-response could result in a drop of $1,800 to $2,000 in funding per year over the next decade.

“We’re talking $20,000 per person that our region, that our local governments are going to lose for every person that doesn’t get counted,” said David Richardson, executive director of LRCOG.

LRCOG is a regional planning and service agency representing 36 local governments in Richmond, Bladen, Hoke, Robeson and Scotland counties.

Data collection operations for the Census will end on Sept. 30. Richmond County’s self-response rate — which accounts for people who’ve responded to the Census by mail, phone or internet — was 53.1% as of Friday. That’s well below North Carolina’s overall self-response rate of 62.2%, and it trails the county’s 2010 Census final self-response rate (57.9%).

Richmond County’s self-response rate ranks 70th out of 100 North Carolina counties. Nearby Union County has the state’s best county response rate, 73.7%, followed by Wake (72%) and Orange (71.9%).

Out of the state’s 551 cities, Rockingham ranks 237th with a self-response rate of 57.3%. Hamlet’s self-response rate is 54.1%, Hoffman’s is 45.1%, Dobbins Heights is at 42.1%, Ellerbe is at 35.2% and Norman is at 34.7%. The cities of Bear Grass (87.5%), Trent Woods (85.5%) and Wesley Chapel (85%) have the state’s top three response rates, respectively.

North Carolina’s total enumerated response rate is 89.9%, tied with Arizona for 44th place in national rankings that include the 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

The Census survey includes just nine questions asking for basic demographic information. Households can take the Census survey online, by phone or by mail. To respond online, visit https://my2020census.gov/. Households that hadn’t already responded to the Census started receiving paper questionnaires in April.