By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Officials from Wood County got a lesson last week on math – specifically counting. Next year’s U.S. Census count will end up determining how many congressional seats each state has, and how much federal funding each state is due.
U.S. Census representatives held their first meeting with local citizens making up the Complete Count Committee for Wood County. The group includes people from government, education, business, social services, religion and media.
Their goal is to count every resident in the county during the 2020 U.S. Census update.
“This is huge for every community in the United States,” said Karen Coburn, from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“This is the largest peacetime effort the U.S. government does,” she said. “It takes a small army.”
The local people meeting last week are the first troops to enlist for the census process in Wood County.
Last time around, the census count failed to tally many of the nation’s youngest residents.
“Nationwide, we missed over a million” children under age 5 in 2010, Coburn said.
To get the most accurate count possible, Wood County’s Complete Count Committee last week identified some of the local populations that might be difficult to count. Those groups included:
- Bowling Green State University students, especially those living off campus in Wards 1 and 2 in the city.
- Migrant workers.
- Those people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- Those living in subsidized housing.
- Homeless.
- Recent immigrants.
- People living in nursing and care facilities.
- People considered “homebound.”
- Those who are illiterate, or computer illiterate.
- “Snowbirds,” who spend part of the year in southern states.
Coburn explained that counting every single person is important since the numbers will determine how the 435 congressional seats are divided among the states, and how nearly $675 billion in federal funding is dispersed annually.
The count affects funding for education, health care, transportation, social services, emergency responders, plus services for elderly and for people with disabilities.
“It touches just about every aspect of people’s lives,” Coburn said.
New this time is the ability for residents to respond online, in addition to by mail.
Coburn stressed that the information gathered through the census process is kept confidential for more than 70 years. The 1950 census information will be released in 2022, she said. The data is not shared with the FBI, immigration or police, she said.
The job of the local Complete Count Committee is to help reach the hard to find populations in Wood County. The group of “census ambassadors” may be hosting public events to get the word out about the need to complete census forms.
“The committee is yours. You run it how you see best,” Coburn said.
Some communities are working with business partners, such as gas stations, which run videos at the pumps about the need to respond to the census. Others use “trusted voices” from the community to make public service announcements. Because 2020 will be the first year for online responses, some schools are opening their computer labs during spring break to the public.
People often need multiple reminders before they actually respond, Coburn said.
“The public must understand this is their civic responsibility,” she said.
The community should be saturated with information on the census through banners, posters and billboards, Coburn said.
“So they are responding and not tossing it in the trash,” she said.
People who don’t respond on their own will receive home visits from census officials.
