Henrico reports 70% response rate on Census to date

As the United States Census Bureau extends the deadline for completing the census, only about 70% of Henrico County residents have filled it out, and bureau officials are doing what they can to get more people to respond.

“Hopefully you’ve seen our commercials, you’ve heard our radio advertisements or you’ve seen promotional items at local events,” said Tasha Chambers, media specialist for the Census Bureau. “We really embarked on a nationwide effort to make sure we touched every single person who is living in the United States.”

The Census Bureau has about 300,000 representatives across the country who strategize about how to increase participation and get the word out about completing the census in their respective communities, which is crucial in rural parts of the commonwealth where access to the internet is limited.

The decision to push back the completion deadline for the census was the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which also has caused the bureau to delay sending staff members to knock on doors until August. While COVID-19 does make the job of the Census Bureau more complicated, Chambers said, technology has made participating in the census easier now than it has ever been.

“For the first time in its history, you can complete the census online, and you can also complete it by phone, which is a change from the past where you only had the paper format,” Chambers said. “But again, having that face to face contact is really important in certain communities, so we’re definitely looking forward to being back out there come August and reaching some of those hard to count populations.”

The counties with the lowest response rates in Virginia are in the eastern peninsulas, Eastern Shore and along the western border, with Lee County having a response rate of only 25.9%. The localities with the highest participation rates in the state are Powhatan, Hanover, Loudoun and the cities of Fairfax and Poquoson.

Census data influences things like how much federal funding will be spent on highways, schools, hospitals, waste management, social services and also how many representatives each state has in Congress. If you have not yet completed the census, you may visit my2020census.gov before Oct. 31 to do so.

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