PORT ANGELES — A U.S. Census official has asked Clallam County lawmakers for their help in compiling an accurate 2010 Census.
Eric Davenport, a senior partnership specialist of the U.S. Census Bureau’s regional office in Bothell, gave a presentation on the 2010 Census to the three commissioners in their Monday work session.
“I am here to ask for your help because we can’t do it alone,” Davenport told commissioners Mike Doherty, Steve Tharinger and Mike Chapman.
Dollar distribution
The constitutionally mandated census is important because it determines the distribution of more than $300 billion in government appropriations annually, Davenport said.
That equates to about $1,200 per person.
An official census is taken every 10 years. The next Census Day is April 1, 2010.
Clallam and other counties stand to lose considerable amounts of money if the census is not accurate, Davenport said.
If a mailed census form isn’t returned, government workers must knock on doors, asking respondents to fill in the information.
“That is a huge undertaking,” Davenport said.
“There’s no way that this single agency can perform this task without engaging people such as yourselves. You’re the leaders of this region, and the people have elected you and put you in office.”
He said a range of population groups, including tribal populations and immigrants, present special challenges.
“These hard-to-count groups tend not to participate at a higher level than other populations, so we focus a lot of effort on getting them to participate,” he said.
Rate of return
Clallam County’s return rate for the mailed form was 57 percent in the 2000 Census. The national average was 67 percent.
“This clearly becomes an area that we will focus a lot of energy on,” Davenport said.
Broken down by city, the return rate was 68 percent in Port Angeles, 56 percent in Sequim and 47 percent in Forks.
Since census questionnaires are only mailed to physical residences, a door-to-door count was taken for the entire hamlet of Neah Bay, where people rely on the post office.
Davenport said it takes three years for census data to be published.
“So decisions that you were making in 2000, 2001, 2002, was really data that was collected in 1990,” Davenport said.
“It’s very dated information, and in today’s world that just doesn’t hold muster. We need to move quicker.”
Census officials will work with food banks to count the homeless population.
Tharinger recommended the county’s Homelessness Task Force.
Davenport stressed the confidentiality of the information gathered.
“It’s a safe process because we are sworn agents of the federal government,” Davenport said.
“The information that we receive and the information that we collect stays with us. It is not released until it is statistically homogenized to a point where no single individual can be identified.”
Census data can be released after 72 years if petitioned, Davenport said.
“We are an independent group. For some populations, such as the immigrant populations and other types of people who might not want to be known, it’s important that they get counted and that they know that we’re not working with the FBI or the CIA or any other agency.”
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
