As of this week, about 40% of households in New York still hadn’t filled out the 2020 U.S. Census, according to the state, and the deadline for completing the incredibly consequential survey is coming up at the end of September.
The response rate in New York was nearly at 60%, as of this week, compared to 64% nationally. In the last census, only 64% of New Yorkers filled out the survey.
Jeff Behler, the New York regional director for the U.S. Census Bureau, said the self-response rate is actually higher than they expected it to be at this point, but that they still want to see more people fill out the census in the coming weeks.
“From a national perspective, we’re doing better than we thought we would going into the 2020 census, and that’s before we knew anything about COVID,” Behler said.
Behler said the slight downturn in response rates this year could be attributed to the fact that fewer events were held by community organizations to encourage the census due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our partners throughout the state of New York were planning really cool events in the hardest to count communities and unfortunately, COVID hit New York at the time the census data collection was starting and all of our partners had to cancel these wonderful plans,” Behler said.
College students also likely left their off-campus apartments to learn remotely from their hometowns when the census was being sent out, he said. Some students may not know they have to fill out the census at their off-campus apartment to be counted, he said.
The deadline to complete the survey is at the end of September. The Census Bureau will also be sending people out to communities to find people who haven’t been counted.
A state’s official census count determines several important things, like federal funding for education and healthcare, and the number of seats in Congress that state receives.
If you haven’t filled out the census, please follow these links to complete the survey; it only takes a few minutes:
1. Complete the census online: https://my2020census.gov/login
(If you don’t know your ID number, you can complete the census without it by clicking below the ‘Login’ button.)
2. Complete the census by phone: 844-330-2020
(If you want to complete the census in a language other than English, find the appropriate telephone number here: https://2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond/responding-by-phone.html
3. Complete the census by mail: if you still have the census packet you received, you can still fill it out and mail it using the return envelope provided. If you’ve lost the return envelope, you can mail your completed census form to: