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July 15, 2020 updates for the Census 2020 Hard to Count/Response Rate map

 

New Bird's Eye View of County, City Response Rates via Dynamic Trendlines & Animated Map; Response Rates by State Legislative District also added

This email update includes:

  • Dynamic trendlines & animated map of response rate trajectories.
  • Estimated response rates by state legislative district added to the map.

Visualizing the trajectory of self-response rates by county or city with dynamic trendlines, and an animated county-level nationwide map

We've added a new "Data Trends" section to our HTC/Response Rate map to help census stakeholders easily visualize how counties & cities in their states have been doing with 2020 Census self-response. The new feature also includes a county-level nationwide map with an animated timeline, and the ability to view counties nationwide over time within each range of response rates.

You can access the trendlines and animated map via the Data trendsmenu item at the top of the map.

This opens a new browser window that shows the county trendlines by default for Alabama; see below (click to view online). Here's a direct link to the Data Trends page.

Each line in the graph represents a county, color-coded based on each of the Census Bureau's initial contact strategies:

  • purple lines represent counties where a plurality of units received an "Internet First" mailing;
  • green lines are counties where a plurality of units received the "Internet Choice" mailing (which included the paper questionnaire);
  • orange lines are where a plurality of housing units were covered by the "Update/Leave" operation (leaving a census packet at the doorstep - suspended in early March but resumed in May/June); and
  • pink lines are Update/Enumerate or Remote Alaska counties.

If you move your mouse over the county lines they'll be highlighted to show response rates day-by-day (the example below highlights Monroe Co in West Virginia). Click a county line to freeze it so it's easier to hover over that county's response rate timeline. And it's easy to search by state and then county; just type in the state name, and then type a county name in the box that says "Highlight a County."

Importantly, you can see notable increases in response rates, such as the jump in Monroe County's rate (above) when Update/Leave responses were processed in bulk during the June 13-14 weekend. The trendline graph also highlights key dates during the 2020 Census (the dashed vertical lines). If you move your mouse over these lines or click them, info about that date is displayed below the graph.

You can use the drop-down features above the graph to filter your state's display to show county lines only for certain types of counties (for example, that are predominantly Internet Choice), and then focus the display only for Mail/Phone responses, for example, like the screenshot below.

When you select the map option Data trends mapin the upper right corner of the Data Trends page, we display a dynamic county-level nationwide map (shown below with some annotations about how to use the map).

When you click on a color range in the map legend, only counties with response rates in that range for that particular date are shown on the map, like the one below that shows counties with persistently low rates as recent as July 1. Double-click the legend to display all counties again.

As always, feedback is welcome!

Response rates for state legislative districts

The Census Bureau publishes daily self-response rates for several types of geographic areas, including congressional districts. But they do not provide self-response rates by state legislative district. Many state legislators and their staff members are keen on helping to ensure a fair and accurate 2020 Census, and they have asked if we can provide the rates by state senate and assembly (or house) district. We can approximate these district rates, and we have included estimated rates on the map as a general guide to help state legislative offices with their 2020 Census Get Out the Count efforts.

To calculate estimated district rates, the CUNY Center for Urban Research assigned census tracts to each legislative district based on the district that either wholly contains the tract or if the geographic center of the tract is within the district. We then multiply each district's tract-level rate by the number of housing units in the tract (based on the Bureau's Address Count data from Oct. 2019) to calculate the estimated number of responding households, sum that across each district, and divide the estimated sum of responding district households by the district sum of overall housing units. Phew!

Here's a screenshot of the map, highlighting New York State Senate district 18 in Brooklyn. The left-hand panel shows the latest rate, and provides some info and links about how to self-respond.

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:

  • 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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