Efforts to conduct the U.S. census have been complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Census workers have had to suspend in-person counting to reduce the chance of spreading the novel coronavirus.
Berrett Wilbur is a former KHNS reporter who now works as the communications manager for Alaska Counts, a statewide education initiative for the 2020 U.S. census.
“In Alaska there are some communities that they intended to count in person that they will come back and count at some point when it’s safe.”
Wilbur says even though census workers aren’t knocking on doors to count people in person, that doesn’t mean the data can’t be collected right now.
“Without ever leaving your house, there are three ways you can respond to the census. One is to mail in a paper form, one is to answer over the phone and to respond online at 2020census.gov,” Wilbur says.
The census asks 10 questions about the people living in a given household. All of that information is kept confidential and census workers risk heavy fines and jail time for sharing any of it.
Wilbur says it’s simple to fill out a response online and you don’t need to have a physical address to respond.
“If you don’t have a physical address you can just put in contextual information that would help the census bureau understand where you are living. So if you live by 33-mile you can put in the census, ‘I live two miles past the 33-mile Roadhouse.’”
According to the U.S. Census’ response tracker, Alaska currently has the lowest response rate to the census of any state in the nation. And locally, not many people have responded either. Only 6.6% of households in the Haines Borough have submitted responses to the census and only 1.5% have responded in Skagway.
Wilbur says she understands that some people are reluctant to share information with the government. It may seem intrusive to answer questions about who lives in your house from a stranger with a clipboard.
Wilbur says it’s an important way to ensure that rural communities in Alaska get their fair share of federal funding.
“By being counted we ensure a decade of funding for everything from schools, hospitals, public health, public safety, roads, airports, that’s how all of those things are funded,” Wilbur says. “Plus if you respond online that just means a census worker won’t have to come find you in person once census workers are allowed to go out and start counting people again.”
The census will accept responses online through August 14th. It’s unclear when census workers will return to the field.
Census information can be submitted online at 2020census.gov or by calling 1-844-330-2020.
