{"id":807580,"date":"2020-05-18T18:18:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T00:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=383542"},"modified":"2020-05-18T18:18:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T00:18:11","slug":"summit-countys-census-response-rate-is-low-and-covid-19-isnt-helping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-countys-census-response-rate-is-low-and-covid-19-isnt-helping\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County\u2019s census response rate is low, and COVID-19 isn\u2019t helping"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-1.1-1024x684.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-1.1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-1.1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-1.1-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-1.1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-1.1-2048x1367.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>A digital sign displaying a message pertaining to the 2020 census is pictured along U.S. Highway 6 in Dillon on Monday, May 18. Participation in the 2020 census by Summit County residents is low.<\/strong><br \/><em>Jason Connolly \/ jconnolly@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>DILLON \u2014 Summit County\u2019s census data impacts everything from education funding to water and waste management services. It also impacts the availability of health care, but the current health crisis is negatively impacting the county\u2019s response rate.<\/p>\n<p>Jason Lederer, Summit County\u2019s interim public information officer, explained that census data generally helps government decision-makers map out where supplies should be sent for everyday needs as well as disaster preparedness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur census data is used to understand the needs of the community from a health care perspective \u2026 in terms of staffing, in terms of grants as well as equipment and materials, and the things that go into providing health care to the community,\u201d Lederer said.&nbsp;\u201cThat\u2019s all dependent upon what the census data shows.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Summit County has a historically low census response rate. The 2010 response rate was 27.8% while the state\u2019s overall rate was 67.2%, <a href=\"https:\/\/2020census.gov\/en\/response-rates.html?#\">according to the U.S. Census Bureau<\/a>. Currently, Summit County\u2019s self-response rate is 15.5%. In the county\u2019s defense, Lederer pointed out that response rates are based on all the homes in the county, which means second homes and short-term rentals are included.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIf you take that into account, the response rates for actual residents \u2014 people that are here full-time, year-round \u2014 it could be somewhere around 45% to 60% given that two-thirds to three-quarters of our residences are not primary residences, so that certainly impacts our numbers,\u201d Lederer said.<\/p>\n<p>However, other mountain communities that have lots of second homes and short-term rentals still have higher self-response rates for the 2020 census. Nearby Eagle County has a 20.9% response rate while Pitkin County has a 29.1% response rate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lederer listed three reasons for why he believes the response in Summit County is lackluster so far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The early departure of seasonal workers<\/li>\n<li>The fact that many Summit County residents did not receive the census by mail<\/li>\n<li>The inability of the county and Census Bureau to engage with residents due to the COVID-19 shutdown<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many Summit County residents didn\u2019t receive a census packet in the mail. The packet invites people to complete the census and provides a census ID. The census is tied to physical addresses, and because the census is not mailed to post office boxes, many households never received a packet.<\/p>\n<div class=\"p402_hide\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-4-1024x683.jpg\" alt class=\"wp-image-383537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-4-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-4-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-4-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Census-SDN-051920-4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Mailboxes are pictured in Summit Cove on Monday, May 18. Summit County participation in the 2020 census is low. Part of this is attributed to the census being mailed to physical residences, many of which do not receive mail in Summit County.<\/strong><br \/><em>Jason Connolly \/ <a href=\"mailto:jconnolly@summitdaily.com\">jconnolly@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI think the other thing that tripped people up is that even if they did know about the census and they went onto the website to do the census, the first thing it asks you is for your census ID,\u201d Lederer said.&nbsp;\u201cIn small print right below there, it says, \u201cDon\u2019t have a census ID?\u201d But if you missed that, you wouldn\u2019t know how to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lederer also pointed out that if it wasn\u2019t for the coronavirus shutdown, seasonal employees would have stayed later into the spring, at least through March, which was when census self-response data collection began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year, many of our seasonal workers left the community early when the ski areas shut down in mid-March, so we suspect that many of them didn\u2019t complete the census,\u201d Lederer said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He said it\u2019s possible these individuals moved to another community and responded on behalf of that community.<\/p>\n<p>Lederer said the county had an $80,000 grant-funded outreach campaign designed to increase census participation but was hijacked by COVID-19. He said events designed to engage with the community regarding the census had to be canceled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur messaging timed with the onset of the pandemic has really impacted our ability to reach people,\u201d Lederer said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lederer said door-to-door operations for field data collection, which had to be postponed, have been effective in the past. The U.S. Census Bureau announced in a news release that field operations in Colorado would resume this week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to the release, census field staff will drop off 2020 census packets at the front doors of households in areas like Summit County where mail is not delivered to people\u2019s homes. The process will not require person-to-person interaction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Anyone can respond to the census online at <a href=\"https:\/\/2020census.gov\/en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2020Census.gov<\/a>, via phone at 844-330-2020 or by mailing a completed census questionnaire.&nbsp;There are no citizenship questions on the census, and individual information is kept private.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/summit-countys-census-response-rate-is-low-and-covid-19-isnt-helping\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A digital sign displaying a message pertaining to the 2020 census is pictured along U.S. Highway 6 in Dillon on Monday, May 18. Participation in the 2020 census by Summit County residents is low.Jason Connolly \/ jconnolly@summitdaily.com DILLON \u2014 Summit County\u2019s census data impacts everything from education funding to water and waste management services. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 18:04:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}