Connecticut Passes 60% Mark in Census Self-Response
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 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, May 4, 2020, Connecticut’s Self-Response Rate Hit 60% and Moved The State Up to 15th Place Among The 50 States.
Last week 91, or 54% of Connecticut’s towns, had self-response rates at or above 60%. This week, 119, or 70%, of our towns are above 60% self-response rates. Tolland claimed the top spot again with a self-response rate of 76.5%. Other towns with a high self-response rate included Marlborough (75.9%), Burlington (75.1%), Orange and Granby (74.4%), and Cheshire (74.3%).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on May 6, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Sixteen Connecticut towns increased their response rates by more than 10%. The 5 towns that increased the most were in Litchfield County.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on May 6, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Connecticut moved up two spots this week to 15th among the 50 states. Minnesota maintained its lead (67.4%), and Alaska had the lowest response rate (37.6%).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on May 6, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Connecticut’s self-response rate continued to climb, passing our neighbor New York (51.1%) and all other New England states, including Rhode Island (54.6%) and Massachusetts (59.1%).
A Smaller Number of Municipalities Were Under 50%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Response rates | 2020 Census. Retrieved on May 6, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
A week ago, 17% of Connecticut towns (28) were under 50%, but as of May 4, 10.7% (18) of our towns were under 50%. These towns are listed below. If you live or work in these locations, check out the Complete Count Committee map to find your committee. Or contact your town hall to find out how you can be part of encouraging a full count.
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, Hartford’s self-response rate was 37.0% on May 4, the tract response rates ranged from a high of 57.6% (tract 5245.02, darker blue below), to a low rate of 9.1% (tract 5038, 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 May 5, 2020.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (May 6, 2020). Response Rates. Retrieved May 6, 2020 from https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html
Be sure to sign up for our CTData newsletters to get the 2020 Census information you need, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.