Census efforts continue

The U.S. Census Bureau is continuing its ongoing efforts to ensure that all Americans are counted in the 2020 Census.

It reports that four out of 10 households have not responded and it has begun sending out census takers to conduct interviews. Additionally, telephone calls are being made to ensure that those who responded provided accurate counts of people living in their households.

Census agents visiting households are being trained on social distancing protocols and provided with personal protective equipment.

Boulder City residents have taken the importance of the 2020 Census to heart, with 69.3 percent of the households responding as of Tuesday, July 14.

The city ranks third in the state, behind Henderson, which has a 70.7 percent self-response rate, and Fallon, which has a 69.4 percent self-response rate.

Overall, at 61.3 percent, Nevada falls just shy of the national response rate of 62.1 percent.

Starting this month and continuing through Oct. 31, census takers will be visiting homes that haven’t responded. If no one is home at that time, the census taker will leave a notice of their visit with information about how to respond online, by phone or by mail.

Census takers also will visit a select number of homes to verify information already submitted to the bureau. They are expected to take place between Sept. 23 and Dec. 22.

The U.S. Constitution mandates a census of the population every 10 years, which has been done since 1790. Census statistics are used to determine the number of seats each state holds in the U.S. House of Representatives and federal agencies use the results to determine how to distribute billions in federal funds to local communities, including money for public schools.

In early March, Mayor Kiernan McManus said the city and state loses about $20,000 in returned tax dollars for each person that is not counted.

For more information or to take the census, visit https://2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020.

Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.