Windham County Sees Highest Jump in Self-Response Rate in Connecticut This Week

Every day, the U.S. Census Bureau updates its Census 2020 self-responses dataset, where it reports figures by state and town. CTData Collaborative will be looking at those numbers to make sure Connecticut is on the right track to have each person counted!

What is the self-response rate? This is the percentage of households in each census tract that have completed their questionnaires online, by paper, and by phone. Census tracts are smaller areas that make up cities and towns, and the Census Bureau has a master list of addresses for each census tract. The bureau calculates the percent of completed questionnaires from that master address list. (See more here).

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on April 22, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html

As of Monday, April 20, 2020, Six of Connecticut’s Towns Saw A Week-Over-Week Increase of More Than 12%.

A week ago, on April 13, Windham County had the lowest self-response rate at 45.7%, placing it last among Connecticut’s counties. However, as of April 20 it came in second-to-last with a 50.4% self-response rate, with Litchfield County slightly lower (49.6%).

Though response rates in many of our cities lingered below the state average, Hartford and Bridgeport, our cities with the lowest response rates, also saw a week-over-week increase that was higher than Connecticut as a whole. Hartford increased by 7.4%, and Bridgeport increased by 7.3%, while Connecticut increased by 5.7%.

Connecticut dropped in rank again this week, sliding to 18th among the 50 states. Minnesota maintained its lead (60.9%), and Alaska had the lowest response rate (33.9%).

Connecticut’s self-response rate continued to climb, passing our neighbor New York (45.2%) and all other New England states, including Rhode Island (48.3%) and Massachusetts (52.4%).

Twenty-eight towns had self-response rates at or above 60%. Tolland claimed the top spot again with a self-response rate of 68.7%. Other towns with a high self-response rate included Marlborough (66.5%), Simsbury (65.7%), Burlington (65.6%), and Cheshire (65.1%).

Thirty-Eight Municipalities Are Under 50%

In Connecticut, 3 towns had self-response rates under 35% on April 20. These included Salisbury (29.5%), Cornwall (33.2%), and Hartford (34.0%).

The self-response rates for some of Connecticut’s largest cities remained below the state average. Hartford (34.0%) had the lowest while Fairfield (62.0%) was highest.

There were 38 municipalities that had self-response rates under 50% on April 20. Lower self-response rates could result in undercounting communities, and undercounts could result in a loss of funding to those municipalities and to the state as a whole. Some of these communities may have low self-response rates because they live in areas that might receive special packets in the mail, which were delayed due to COVID-19. Others may be low due to lack of reliable Internet or even to concerns about completing census questionnaire.

Before we achieve a complete count, we need to understand the challenges people face, and these can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. Connecticut’s Complete Count Committees are identifying ways that they can continue to support their communities once it is safe to resume their Get Out the Count activities. You can learn about a Complete Count Committee in your town here.

What’s Your Town’s Self-Response Rate?

Each of our towns are made up of one or more census tracts, and response rates vary among these smaller areas. While as a whole, New Britain’s self-response rate was 45.3% on April 20, the tracts’ response rates ranged from a high of 65.2% (tract 4164, the darkest blue below), which was above the Connecticut average, to a low rate of 31.3% (tract 4153, one of the dark oranges below).

You can explore tracts in your own community using the Census 2020 Response Rate Map or the Census 2020 Hard to Count Map.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (April 20, 2020). Response Rates. Retrieved April 20, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html

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Census & ACSSarah Eisele-DyrliApril 22, 2020