Carolina Demographics
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A complete and accurate census count is incredibly important. The census shapes how billions of dollars in federal funding are distributed (including $43.8 billion to North Carolina), how political seats are apportioned, and how communities plan for their future residents. Historically, certain populations have been undercounted in the census, due to a variety of factors. In 2010, the Census Bureau estimated the census missed about 2.1% of the Black population nationwide. For young children, the…
Every household that doesn’t fill out the census form online, by mail, or by phone—known as “self-response”—enters the Census Bureau’s non-response follow-up (NRFU) universe. During NRFU, the Census Bureau sends trained enumerators door-to-door to collect census responses directly. This is an expensive and time-consuming process. NRFU was supposed to start in May 2020 but has been delayed due to COVID-19. The Census Bureau currently plans to begin NRFU operations in mid-August. To understand which communities this might impact, we examined shifts in the tracts with the lowest self-response (bottom 20%) and compared low response rates on March 20th with the lowest responding tracts as of May 17th. (The bottom 20% is a fluid group. The tracts in the bottom can change week to week as certain communities increase their response rates.)
NC Census Tracker Updates Visit the NC Census Tracker Sign up for email updates about the map and our weekly response rate analyses Presentations and Downloads 2020 Census: How is North Carolina Doing (April 22, 2020) North Carolina: Census 2020 Real-Time Response Rates – Week ending April 26 (PDF) County-Level Response Rates – Week ending April 26 New: NC college maps and tract data Note: The below analysis was done on 4/22/2020 with the self-response…
How many farmworkers are in the United States? There are about 3 million farmworkers in the United States: about two million are family farmworkers and another one million are hired farmworkers. Do hired farmworkers count in the Census? If a farmworker is living in a community on April 1, 2020, and that is their usual residence, meaning that it is the place where they live and sleep most of the time, they should be counted…
The recent stay-at-home orders have caused Carolina Demography's under-5 staff population to grow substantially. Though our temporary new colleagues generally prefer crayons to Excel and chalk drawings to data analysis, they are willing and able to help with our ongoing Census work. Below are some activities we've tried with our kids that may also work in your house or neighborhood (if you're looking for civically-themed activities that hold toddlers' attention for a moderate amount of…
Census Day took place across the United States on Wednesday, April 1st. While it is not the deadline for filling out the Census – that’s currently August 14 – many states do see a bump in Census responses on April 1st – North Carolina included. Of the fifty states and Washington, DC, North Carolina had the twelfth-highest bump in response rates due to Census Day. Gaining 3.2 percentage points from April 1st to April 2nd,…
The coronavirus pandemic has already affected 2020 Census operations in a variety of ways. Earlier this month, the Census Bureau announced that it would delay the start of its field operations – hiring and training workers to go to households – for two weeks, until April 1. This post looks at response rates by type of enumeration area (how the Bureau planned to contact households and invite them to respond to the Census) to understand…
2020 Census counting officially began on January 21 with early data collection in remote Alaska and the first wave of mailings went out in early March. By law, the Census Bureau is required to deliver the count used for apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives by December 31, 2020. That means that no matter what, the count must go on. The Bureau is now adjusting to the challenges of counting all Americans in…
When completing the 2020 Census, respondents are asked to report everyone living in their home on April 1, 2020 – this date is known as “Census Day.” What do we know about how the nation and North Carolina are responding? 2020 response rate lags the response in 2010 According to City University of New York’s (CUNY) Center for Urban Research, response to the 2020 Census lags rates observed in 2010. As of March 31, 2010,…
April 1 is traditionally celebrated as Census Day. But, as we all know, this Census Day is a vastly different than in past decades due to COVID-19. Instead of in-person celebrations around the country, many Census advocates will be giving press conferences today on video conferencing software. To encourage more people to fill out the Census, we've created some Census-themed Zoom backgrounds. Use them! Share them! Send us a picture on Twitter (@ncdemography) or through…