PORT ANGELES — Clallam County is on pace with the rest of the state and Jefferson County is lagging slightly behind when it comes to returning census forms.
About 32 percent of Clallam County households and 28 percent in Jefferson County had responded to the 2010 Census by mail as of last Friday.
The Census Bureau began mailing the questionnaires on March 15, and the official head-count day is this Thursday, April 1.
Personal visit
Households that have not returned their questionnaires by Thursday will be the subject of personal visits by census-takers as early as May.
As of Friday, the statewide participation rate was 31 percent. The national rate was 34 percent.
Figures will be updated today online at tinyurl.com/yh4wmx9.
Every 10 years, the U.S. Census Bureau tries to count every man, woman and child.
The federal government uses the constitutionally mandated census count to dole out more than $400 billion to state, local and tribal governments for local programs and services such as free lunch for low-income students, vocational training, road construction and emergency services.
The 10-question census form takes about 10 minutes to fill out. The form comes in a postage-paid envelope.
The door-to-door count by census-takers costs $57 per household, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
If every household mailed back a form, taxpayers would save about $1.5 billion.
This year, the U.S. Census Bureau and Google have teamed up with an interactive map that shows the census return rate at tinyurl.com/yh4wmx9. The data is posted from Monday through Friday.
City return rates
In a city-to-city comparison, Port Townsend was leading the North Olympic Peninsula with a 36 percent return rate as of Friday.
Port Angeles (35 percent) and Sequim (34 percent) were also ahead of the rest of the state.
Forks’ return rate was 11 percent.
About 30 percent of Jamestown S’Klallam tribal members had returned census forms.
The Quileute (12 percent), Hoh (12 percent) and Lower Elwha (8 percent) return rates are being tracked on the Web site.
The U.S. Census is not reporting data online for the Makah tribe. Officials had no explanation as to why on Friday.
The top five states for returning census forms were North Dakota (47 percent), Montana (45 percent), South Dakota (45 percent) Minnesota (43 percent) and Iowa (42 percent).
In the 2000 census, Clallam County had a 72 percent return rate — the same as the state and national average.
Jefferson County’s return rate in the last census was 75 percent.
Counting homeless
Beginning today, census workers and volunteers across the national will make a three-day count of the homeless.
“Every office is doing their own versions of the three-day operation,” said Cecilia Sorci, a regional spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau.
“It’s a national effort,” added Rex Springer, a Port Angeles-based partnership assistant with the U.S. Census Bureau.
“They will be going to soup kitchens and the homeless shelters for a couple of days and actually out in the evening on the 31st, counting the homeless.”
Census workers on the Peninsula have been in contact with homeless resource centers such as Serenity House and West End Outreach to make sure everyone is counted.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
