Census will aid Georgia

Officials tout outreach to growing minority population as main reason for increase in state's numbers

Web posted September 12, 2000

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By Dave Williams
Morris News Service

ATLANTA - Tracey-Ann Nelson of Gov. Roy Barnes' office couldn't get the money she needed to buy ads on Spanish-language radio stations promoting the importance of this year's census.

Although the U.S. Census Bureau offered forms in Spanish, postcards notifying Spanish speakers of the forms were written in English.

Despite these and other shortcomings of the 2000 census highlighted Monday during a hearing in Atlanta, witnesses testified that this year's head count, by and large, was successful in Georgia.

``We know our count will be good in December,'' Ms. Nelson said.

Seats in Congress and most federal spending programs are allocated on the basis of a national census required by the Constitution every 10 years.

The Census Bureau estimates it missed 2.1 percent of Georgians - more than 142,000 people - during the 1990 tally, a result that cost the state one seat in Congress and, according to estimates from the state Data and Research Center, about $2 billion in federal aid.

Sixty-three percent of Georgia households mailed in their 2000 census forms last spring, Jim Holmes, director of the Census Bureau's Atlanta regional office, told members of the Census Monitoring Board, a bipartisan panel created by Congress in 1997 to track the preparations for and conducting of the 2000 census.

Census workers had to undertake follow-up visits to more than 1.2 million households whose occupants did not respond by mail, Mr. Holmes testified during Monday's hearing.

Although Georgia's response rate was well below the target of 68 percent set by the bureau and 1 percent below the national average, the director said he considered it a success given the state's rapid growth during the 1990s, particularly among minorities.

Historically, states with an influx of new residents have achieved less accurate counts than states with more stable populations. Ethnic minorities have been undercounted, experts say, noting that states such as Georgia, with a large minority population, can suffer.

Mr. Holmes predicted the 2000 census will set Georgia's population at 7.7 million to 7.8 million people, an increase of more than 1 million since 1990. The growth rate among Hispanics and Asian-Americans will be more than 100 percent, he said.

To reach those booming populations of ethnic minorities, a 44-member committee appointed by Mr. Barnes last year spearheaded a number of outreach efforts. Starting with $750,000 in state funds that later was supplemented by another $2.6 million, the committee launched a major ad campaign targeting such typically undercounted groups as Hispanics, blacks and the elderly.

Ms. Nelson said the committee also worked with the construction and poultry industries, major sources of employment for Hispanic workers, tucking information on the census into paycheck envelopes.

Linda Meggers, director of the state's Legislative Redistricting Office, said the committee also developed a school curriculum based on the census and offered grants for recreation equipment and/or facilities to cities and counties with the highest mail-in response rates.

``Georgians are competitive,'' she said. ``They love contests.''

Mr. Holmes said another key to Georgia's success was the quality of the census workers. The Census Bureau paid its 25,000 workers in Georgia $9 to $14.25 an hour to knock on doors of households whose occupants didn't mail in forms, he said.

``We had an applicant pool of over 100,000,'' he said. ``Clearly, that was driven by the pay.''

Final state-by-state results of the census and the data to be used to reapportion congressional seats are due on President Clinton's desk Dec. 31. But the data that will form the basis of redistricting of state legislative, county commission and city council seats won't be released until April.

Reach Dave Williams at (404) 589-8424.