Not good: NC, Southeast lag in Census 2020 self-response and non-response follow-up

Non-Response Follow-Up (NRFU) for the 2020 Census began nationwide on Tuesday, August 11th. Last week, the Census Bureau began releasing daily reports on total enumeration—the percent of housing units that have self-responded plus the percent that have been captured in NRFU —for the nation and all 50 states, DC., and Puerto Rico. This proportion ranges from 1.7% in Idaho to 29.1% in West Virginia.
Based on these reports, North Carolina, and the southeast more broadly, are currently far behind the national average in being counted.
Here are a few quick takeaways:
Based on housing unit estimates from 2019 and total response rates on August 20th, the top 5 states for number of units not yet counted are:
Four of the ten states with the lowest share of housing units counted through NRFU are served by the Atlanta regional office. These are: Alabama (4.8%), Florida (5.3%), North Carolina (5.3%), and Georgia (5.3%).
The states covered by the Atlanta regional office have the lowest overall NRFU rate (5.8%) and the lowest overall self-response rate (60%). As a result, the total response is more than seven percentage points below the national average. The total response rates by Census region are (low to high):
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Contact UsCategories: Carolina Demographics, Census 2020
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