After September 30, Vermont, Washington County residents and those who live in the Mad River Valley will not be able to respond to the 2020 U.S. Census.
Response rates for Vermont are low. The results for Washington County are low and the results for the Mad River Valley are bad.
Field workers or census workers going door-to-door is being suspended as of September 30. According to data found at 2020census.gov/en/response-rates 58.9% of Vermonters self-reported and another 24.6 responded to census takers. Some 24.6% of those contacted were nonresponsive.
The data shows that 60.2% of Vermonters have self-reported in Washington County. Montpelier residents self-reported at 74.6%, Middlesex residents self-reported at 74.5%, East Montpelier residents reported at 72.0%. Barre and Waterbury residents reported at 70.4 and 70.0%, respectively.
Queue the local response: Duxbury self-reporting is at 67.8%. Moretown’s self-reporting is at 66.9%. Waitsfield’s self-reporting is at 53.1%. Fayston’s self-reporting is at 39.9% and Warren’s is at 23.7%.
There’s no need to enumerate the reasons why every Vermonter needs to be counted during a pandemic. State household and population figures are used to calculate the state’s share of federal aid and within the state, each county or town’s share of aid that comes in from the federal government. This is not rocket science, particularly during a pandemic when federal aid has been flowing and will continue to flow for the many years it takes to climb out of the economic iceberg that we hit.
Beyond that, accurate census data informs federal aid for transportation, roads, infrastructure and programs that provide food and fuel aid for those in need and programs that provide breakfast and lunch for children in schools.
The poor response has been blamed on many things such as people being afraid to open their doors to census workers, people being overwhelmed by the pandemic and unable to complete the form that was mailed to them or those who use a P.O. Box being unable to go to my2020census.gov to follow the steps. People can also call 844-330-2020 to fill out the census.
Surely we can do better than this.
