Weekly Newsletter: Census 2010 Update: Door-To-Door Visits Underway

Statement

Weekly Newsletter: Census 2010 Update: Door-To-Door Visits Underway

What do you think of when you hear the doorbell ring? If you're like me you wonder who it is. Maybe it's a relative making a surprise visit, a neighbor asking for a missing ingredient to finish their cake, or a student asking for donations for a school program. Many of us may be apprehensive to go to the door if we aren't expecting anyone, but for the next few weeks you should expect a knock on your door, especially if you didn't fill out and return your census form.

What do you think of when you hear the doorbell ring? If you're like me you wonder who it is. Maybe it's a relative making a surprise visit, a neighbor asking for a missing ingredient to finish their cake, or a student asking for donations for a school program. Many of us may be apprehensive to go to the door if we aren't expecting anyone, but for the next few weeks you should expect a knock on your door, especially if you didn't fill out and return your census form.

This important phase of counting the U.S. population involves census takers going door-to-door. This is an investment in the quality of the census which will impact us for the next decade. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau collected during the mail-in form phase of the census, we had a nationwide participation rate of 72 percent. Arkansas's participation rate was slightly lower with 67 percent. The good thing is we have an opportunity to increase this number over the next several weeks as census takers get more information.

While many of the counties in the Third District had participation levels at our near the rate of the 2000 census, there was a big increase in participation in Benton County. 10 years ago the county had a participation rate of 66 percent and at the end of April had a participation rate of 75 percent. This is good step because our participation determines how federal funding is distributed to our communities. This information helps our community leaders plan and develop areas in the future.

The Census Bureau is taking measures to make sure everyone is counted by sending census takers to visit the nearly 48 million households that did not mail back their census form. You may know a census taker, because they are people hired from the community to make sure the local count is correct and answering the questions is easy and only takes about 10 minutes.

I encourage you to open your door to the census workers. This is safe. All census takers must undergo an FBI background check and a fingerprint check. You can identify census takers by their badge. They will have an ID badge that contains a Department of Commerce watermark and expiration date. The census worker may also be carrying a black canvas bag with a Census Bureau logo. If you have questions, the census taker will be able to provide you with contact information about their supervisor or the local census office phone number. Census workers will never ask for social security numbers, credit card numbers or bank information.

The U.S. Census Bureau is working to make the 2010 Census a success. We all need to do our civic duty because this will impact our future.

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