With the mail back participation period over at the end of April, census workers began visiting homes around the country on May 1, the US Census Bureau reported.
Lake County's mail back participation rate was 60 percent, up from 54 percent in 2000, when the county ranked third from the bottom of the state's 58 counties for its mail participation rate.
However, this year, census officials said Lake County was one of only a handful of California counties to improve its rate of participation.
Overall, California's mail back participation rate was 71 percent this year, down from 73 percent in 2000. The national mail participation rate was 72 percent, which tied the previous census, according to the US Census Bureau.
The agency reported that the constitutionally mandated count determines representation for an area in government, as well as how much federal money it will receive.
In April, Sylvia WynnLindeman, with the US Census' Partnership and Data Services division, made a presentation to the Clearlake City Council in which she explained that some populations in Lake County were seriously undercounted 10 years ago. That impacted such critical areas as the local education system, which she said took a big hit.
The results of the census are used to forecast transportation needs, establish eligibility for housing and rehabilitation funds and more. “It's everything that we depend upon in our communities to round out our lives,” she said.
Tom Szabla, assistant regional census manager for the Seattle Regional Census Center, told Lake County News that 90 percent of US residents are covered by the census mail out/mail back operation.
The mail back success rate “gives us an indication about how much work we're going to have in a particular area,” Szabla said.
Ultimately, the US Census will count 100 percent of the population. Szabla estimated that about 35 percent of US homes didn't return their forms. “We've got about 50 million housing units to visit,” he said.
That includes 74,000 housing units in the five-county Eureka coverage area, which includes Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity counties. Szabla said of those, there are 22,000 housing units or homes in Lake County that must be visited.
This year in Lake County, while many areas had their census forms delivered by mail or – in the case of areas served by post office boxes – census workers, some areas, such as Clearlake, had no forms delivered before April 1, which was Census Day, the day on which the US Census sought to get a snapshot of where America's population was situated.
Szabla said many small towns in the rural United States have post office boxes, which census forms aren't delivered to because it's hard to determine to what physical address they're tied. That requires census workers to deliver the forms in person.
WynnLindeman told the Clearlake City Council in April that Clearlake wasn't alone, and many other areas across the country didn't receive their forms earlier. “Except for that blip, most people got their forms in March,” she said.
Szabla said the US Census expects to close out its visits to homes in mid-July, slightly earlier in other areas.
“With an area like Clearlake, if 100 percent or 80 percent didn't get forms, that's going to be a pretty big workload for us,” he said, noting that they may send in numerous workers to “blitz” the area.
Another challenge for the 2010 Census was the fact that the US Postal Service no longer allowed census forms to be distributed from post offices, which Szabla attributed to postal service regulations.
“They pretty much said they didn't want any 'Be Counted' sites there,” he said, adding that he didn't see that changing in the future.
Recruitment this year was easy in some areas due to the economy, but it was more difficult in some rural areas, Szabla noted.
“It's much more complicated than it has been in the past,” he said.
WynnLindeman had previously reported a 74-percent recruitment rate for Lake County.
Lake County's census workers received lower compensation than some other areas. While Lake's workers received $11.50 an hour, the pay scale was much higher in Sonoma County, where they could receive $20 an hour. Szabla said the differences in pay were determined by a study of pay rates for similar jobs locally.
Followup at homes where there were no forms returned will include as many as six visits, WynnLindeman had told the council. If no one answers the door at such homes, census workers can then go to a neighbor to ask for information.
Szabla said that when census workers visit homes they will carry plastic identification cards and a black bag.
He said residents should feel free to ask for identification or for the local census office phone number if they want more information.
“We want our people to show the ID,” he said.
For more information, visit www.2010census.gov.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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