Census officials want a more accurate count

U.S. Census officials say this year they hope to see greater participation from the Palouse’s two chronically under-counted counties.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Whitman and Latah counties — specifically areas inhabited by college students in Moscow and Pullman — have some of the worst census response rates in their respective states.

Local census officials say the reason this is problematic is that census data gathered at the start of every decade directly informs the behavior of virtually every level of government. If a large enough portion of the population declines to participate, it could have ramifications for allocation of federal funds, prioritization of public programs and even the number of representatives a state has in Congress.

“If we do not get the correct numbers then it affects a tremendous amount of funding — there’s $675 billion up for grabs in federal funds based on the count that comes through,” said Lisa Egan, chairwoman of Latah County’s Complete Count Committee. “Part of that could come to Latah County, but if we don’t get the correct number of people, then we don’t get the correct amount of money.”

According to the Census Bureau’s website, three tracts of land in Moscow and four in Pullman have the lowest response rates in their counties and much of the problem can be traced to a single demographic — college students.

Mindy Thorp, the Census Bureau’s partnership specialist for North Idaho counties, said while census workers estimate that between 20 and 25 percent of residents in both cities who live off campus will decline to respond to a census, that number jumps to nearly 27 percent when you consider the University of Idaho campus on its own. In Pullman, between 35 and 40 percent of those who live on or near Washington State University’s campus are expected to ignore the count — the worst rate in all of Eastern Washington and North-Central Idaho. That’s potentially thousands of people going uncounted and millions in federal funds left on the table, Thorp said.

“The data suggests that one of the areas that did not respond very well last time was the area around (the UI) campus,” Egan said. “We think that might be partially because college students don’t understand how this works or they might think that their parents at home are counting them — but it needs to be where you are living on April 1.”

Unlike other, longer surveys the Census Bureau puts out, Egan said the 10-year or “decennial” census has only 11 quesions that ask for information like age, gender and place of residence. Addressing a controversy that made headlines last year, Egan said there will be no citizenship question on the 2020 census but even if it were, the Census Bureau is legally prohibited from sharing that data with other federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“All the information that they submit is confidential,” Egan said. “The people who are involved with the census — any of the census-takers — they take an oath to keep this information confidential for 72 years.”

By April 1, every home in the country should have received an invitation to participate in the 2020 Census in one of three ways: by phone, mail or, for the first time in history, online at https://respond.census.gov/acs.

Thorp said local census offices are still struggling to find employees, noting Latah County is only about 46 percent staffed. She said those who wish to investigate employment opportunities with the U.S. Census Bureau can find more information at 2020census.gov/jobs.

Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.