The Majority of Connecticut’s Towns Have Self-Response Rates Above 60%
Every day, the U.S. Census Bureau updates its Census 2020 self-responses dataset, where it reports figures by state and town. CTData Collaborative looks at these numbers each week 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, or 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).
As of Monday, April 27, 2020, 54% of Connecticut’s Towns Had Self-Response Rates at Or Above 60%
While last week, 28 towns had self-response rates at or above 60%, this week, 91, or 54% of Connecticut’s towns, had self-response rates at or above 60%. Tolland claimed the top spot again with a self-response rate of 72.4%. Other towns with a high self-response rate included Marlborough (71.4%), Burlington (70.7%), Cheshire (69.9%), and Simsbury (69.6%).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on April 27, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Litchfield County has seen lower self-response rates, with the entire northwest corner under 50% as of April 27. However, among the towns that have had the highest increases since a week ago, three of those with the greatest gains were in Litchfield County.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on April 27, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Connecticut moved up one spot this week, back to 17th among the 50 states. Minnesota maintained its lead (64.3%), and Alaska had the lowest response rate (35.8%).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on April 27, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Connecticut’s self-response rate continued to climb, passing our neighbor New York (47.9%) and all other New England states, including Rhode Island (51.3%) and Massachusetts (55.8%).
Twenty-Eight Municipalities Were Under 50%
A week ago, 22% of Connecticut towns (38) had self-response rates under 50%, but this week 17% of our towns (28) were under 50%. Two towns, Salisbury (30.7%) and Cornwall (33.6%), had response rates under 35%.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on April 27, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
The self-response rates for some of Connecticut’s largest cities remained below the state average. Hartford (35.4%) had the lowest while Fairfield (66.1%) was highest.
Twenty-eight municipalities had self-response rates under 50% on April 27. 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, Waterbury’s self-response rate was 45.3% on April 28, the tract response rates ranged from a high of 65.2% (tract 3520, a light blue below), which was above the Connecticut average, to a low rate of 19.7% (tract 3504, 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.
Response rates in this image are from April 26, 2020.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (April 27, 2020). Response Rates. Retrieved April 27, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
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