Door-Knocking Enumeration Begins in Selected Areas; Our Map Shows Where and What to Expect
This email update includes:
- Using the map to see where door-knocking enumeration will begin in July.
- Our latest response rate analysis.
- Recent online census self-response highlights.
Find out where Census Bureau's nonresponse followup (NRFU) enumeration is taking place this month
The Census Bureau conducts the decennial census via two overall operations: self-response, and nonresponse followup (i.e, NRFU). Self-response has been taking place since March, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with householders filling out the census questionnaire online, by phone, or by mail. The nationwide self-response rate is just over 62%.
But in most communities, not every householder fills out the census form on their own. (In 2020, two small towns — one in Iowa, the other in N. Dakota — already have a 100% self-response rate. But the response rate so far everywhere else is lower, in many areas much lower.) For every household that does not self-respond, the Census Bureau strives to meet its goal of counting everyone by sending a census enumerator to the non-responding households to enumerate the residents in person.
COVID-19 caused the Census Bureau to push back the start of the nonresponse followup operation to August 11. But the Bureau is starting NRFU in several areas of the country before mid-August. Last week the NRFU door-knocking effort began in 6 areas, and this week it is continuing in another 6 areas. By the end of the month, the Bureau will send census takers to an additional 35 areas to knock on the doors of non-responding households for in-person enumeration.
NRFU on the map
Each area where the door-knocking will take place is overseen by an Area Census Office (ACO). Sometimes an ACO will cover a few neighborhoods in a city. But many ACOs are large, covering multiple counties or even entire states. For example, the "Beckley, W. Virginia" ACO is not just in Beckley — it is coterminous with West Virginia itself.
Here's the map of the NRFU schedule by ACO in July. The areas are color-shaded by date that the door-knocking will begin. NRFU is scheduled to take place everywhere else — all the areas in gray — on August 11.
Census stakeholders can use this information to alert your communities where they can expect to see enumerators in July.
Our online HTC/Response Rate map also displays this information. If you search by street address or select a census tract on the map, we display text in the left-hand panel if the address or tract is in one of the 47 ACOs where door-knocking enumeration will take place in July. You can also search on the map by Area Census Office directly and we display the same information.
Here are two example links:
The nonresponse follow-up door-knocking operation is a critical part of helping to ensure a fair and accurate count. We hope these resources will help stakeholders in their ongoing Get Out the Count campaigns.
Response Rates Analysis June 19 through July 23
In collaboration with the Census Counts 2020 coalition and the Funders Census Initiative, we continue to examine response rate trends nationwide, especially in relation to communities with historically undercounted populations.
Our analyses are available at the Center for Urban Research/CUNY Graduate Center website. Here are links to our last two presentations:
The U.S. response as of today July 24 has inched up to 62.4%. But there's lots of variation within the country and within states; we discuss all that and more at the links above. And we talk about the implications for NRFU as the self-response operation begins to wind up.
For example, our latest analysis includes the following map that highlights the tracts nationwide with the worst self-response rates (the areas in pink & orange, with rates in the bottom 20%). These areas will need the most NRFU enumeration.
Our final regular analysis of the 2020 Census self-response rates will be posted on August 7.
Recent Links to the HTC/Response Rate map
Census stakeholders have highlighted our map at their websites and/or have used our response rate analyses in their work, and several media outlets have featured the map as a resource for their viewers/readers. Here are some recent examples:
Please let us know if we've missed any other examples.
Links to earlier updates
Make sure to follow us on Twitter at @Census2020Map !
The HTC 2020 map is a work in progress. Other recent updates and enhancements are described here:
- July 15, 2020: New "Data Trends" feature added to the mapping site, with dynamic trendlines & animated map of response rate trajectories. Estimated response rates by state legislative district also added to the map.
- June 25, 2020: Dynamic new metric to tract response rates at the tract, city, & county levels. Examples of other resources analyzing the latest 2020 Census self-response rates, and our latest analysis of the nation's response rate trends.
- May 27, 2020: Update/Leave operations have resumed in 42 states & Puerto Rico; rates are increasing slowly nationwide but bright spots highlight importance of census outreach to continue to boost response; tracts with lowest response rates are very different than tracts with highest rates.
- May 14, 2020: New map search feature for Area Census Offices (where the Update/Leave operation is resuming), our latest self-response rate analysis (Week7), & links to other projects analyzing self-response rates.
- May 6, 2020: News about where the Update/Leave operation is resuming, and our latest self-response rate analyses (Weeks 4, 5, & 6).
- April 13, 2020: Week 3 Response Rate Analysis; Trendlines Added to the Map.
- April 7, 2020: Week 2 Response Rate analysis; Tribal Lands added to the map.
- April 3, 2020: Census 2020 HTC map news: "Census Day" Self-Response Bump; Data Q&A.
- March 31, 2020: Week 1 Response Rate analysis.
- March 23, 2020: Update on mapping self-response rates, with emphasis on the 2020 progress bar that fills in daily after the latest rates are published, easy share/embed options for your map, and some notes on the data.
- March 19 2020: In a joint statement with our colleagues at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), we highlighted the importance of a fair and accurate 2020 Census as the coronavirus challenges grow, and lifted up the resources available at our HTC 2020 map to help inspire Americans to fill out the 2020 Census form on their own. Self-responding helps ensure that the Census Bureau collects reliable data about the nation's population. And self-responding is a way to practice social distancing because it avoids a knock at your door later on from a census taker.
- March 2020: The HTC map is now focused on census self-response rates. All the former info at the map is still there. But now that census mailings are going out, the map has been updated to reflect 2010 response rates in anticipation of integrating 2020 real-time rates after March 20. NB: the map not only displays response rates for each state, county, and tract, but also include a bar chart in the map's left-hand panel that shows the 2010 rate (and 2000, for historical context) for now. The 2020 column in the bar chart is empty, but it will start to go up after March 20. How quickly and how far it rises depends on local census stakeholders!
- February 2020: New data on the risk of undercounting young children, in collaboration with the Population Reference Bureau. For more info, visit PRB's website.
- January 2020: To help promote the official start of the 2020 Census in Alaska, we added a special "It Starts Here" (in Toksook Bay, AK) graphic on the map. Updates in January also included new 2014-2018 population estimates for tracts, counties, states, legislative districts, and more.
- December 2019: New advanced tract search feature, statewide maps of Census Bureau contact strategies, and more.
- November 2019: Comprehensive information for all 2020 Census contact techniques combined in one place at the HTC 2020 map, so census stakeholders can more easily inform local residents about what to expect when the 2020 decennial census takes place. Also see the CUNY Center for Urban Research website for a state-by-state analysis.
- October 2019: Updates to TEA designations; the latest examples of groups using the HTC map across the country; enhancing the HTC metrics with the Census Bureau's "low response score", the Urban Institute's projections of undercount by state; & more.
- August 2019: In-Field Address Canvassing areas & stats on the map; organizations that are using the HTC map for local grant assistance; new examples of linking to and/or embedding the HTC map.
- July 2019: new feature to highlight tracts based on share of households without internet access; a list of other census maps nationwide, and more.
- June 2019: Census contacts by state/county; census tract search feature.
- April 2019: customized printing, data downloads, and more.
- March 2019: mapping Type of Enumeration Areas (TEA) and Area Census Offices (ACOs)
- January 2019: new ACS data for the 2013-17 period (including internet access), new legislative info, public library locations, and tribal lands added to the map.
If you haven't signed up for our HTC 2020 map updates, please do so here.
We look forward to hearing your suggestions for improving the map. Please contact the Mapping Service at the CUNY Graduate Center with your feedback.
Thanks!
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