The United States Census Bureau is cutting off its collection one month earlier than had been scheduled. That means anyone living in American has until the end of September to make sure they are counted for the 2020 census.
As of August 5th, 63% of national households have responded to the census. In California, the response rate is just over 64%, or ten million households.
Locally the response to the census varies:
- Santa Cruz County: Over 67%
- San Benito County: 65%
- Monterey County: 60%
- City of Salinas: 56%
Why does the census matter? Because each census respondent brings the state about a thousand dollars a year in federal funding. The census also determines how many seats California receives in the House of Representatives.
State leaders say they are worried about losing a month in getting census information to Washington. They say it takes about 10 minutes to fill out the form and census workers will start knocking on doors on Tuesday if they haven’t received a response.
