Ed O’Keefe reports on Census Bureau’s final stats on mailback “participation” rates
H/t to Ed O’Keefe of The Washington Post:
72% of households responded to 2010 Census
Take a gander at the documents Groves shared with reporters at his announcement earlier today:
The 2010 Census response rate matched returns for the 2000 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday.
Seventy-two percent of American households returned questionnaires by last week and 28 states had higher response rates than 10 years ago. Seven of the 10 most populous counties matched their 2000 response rates as did eight of the 10 most populous cities, the Census Bureau said.
Census Director Robert Groves estimated that between 46 million and 49 million households did not return questionnaires. Temporary census takers hired by the agency will hit the streets starting this week and will visit those addresses up to six times to get answers. The agency will further outline those plans at a news conference Monday.
Groves said he anticipates critics will question why this year’s results only matched the 2000 response rates despite a multimillion-dollar advertising and outreach campaign, but he called this year’s results “unbelievable” because survey response rates have dropped significantly in the past decade.
Socioeconomic concerns rather than race or ethnicity appeared to drive lower response rates, Groves said. Less-educated, lower-income households appeared to respond less. The nation’s foreclosure crisis also contributed to the lower rates, he said.
The total cost of 2010 Census operations — budgeted for about $14 billion — will be known once officials get a complete tally of households that did not respond, Groves said.
Tags: 2000, 2010, Ed O'Keefe, education, final, foreclosure, foreclosures, income, Non-Response Follow-Up, NRFU, questionnaires, response rate
April 29th, 2010 at 5:29 am
Bob Groves,
I see the Washington Post quoted you calling the 2010 Census participation rates “unbelievable”.
Thank you for reading my comment on MTC yesterday in which I said I do not believe the participation rates.
I am pleased you agree with my disbelief of the 2010 Census “participation rates’.
Now, could you get the Census Bureau to produce some credible statistics?
April 30th, 2010 at 1:27 am
RE: census takers “will visit those addresses up to six times to get answers.”
It is a maximum of three times. The Record of Contact section on the questionnaire contains spaces for six entries, but three are for telephone calls.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Crew Leaders for the NRFU are telling workers there is only 1 to 2 weeks of work (not the 3 or 4 months stated in NRFU Training).
May 5th, 2010 at 10:41 am
[...] of time to answer. This year, the census is the shortest ever, with only 10 questions. However, since the public was informed that 72% of American households mailed back there 2010 Census forms, the Census Bureau has had no problem comparing apples to oranges as it praises this year’s [...]