Census response lower than hoped

Web posted September 20, 2000

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By Clarissa J. Walker
Staff Writer

How well Augustans responded to the U.S. Census depends on whom you ask.

Augusta failed to meet its census response rate goal, according to the rate table that U.S. Census Director Kenneth Prewitt discussed during a news conference Tuesday.

Last year, Augusta officials vowed at least 68 percent of the 87,058 forms sent out to the area's households would be mailed or e-mailed back to the bureau. In the final count, released Tuesday, Augusta fell short by more than 3,400 respondents, with a response rate of 64 percent.

These figures reflect only the number of forms sent in and doesn't include those gathered during the door-to-door effort.

But Augusta Mayor Bob Young said that despite the numbers published on the census Web site, the city was apparently far from a failure when all of the forms were tallied.

``(Census regional officials) gave us an award and said that our count is better than Macon, Savannah and Atlanta as far as the completeness of the count,'' Mr. Young said. ``But they won't give me the numbers. They gave me an award instead of the numbers.''

The numbers Washington officials called ``final'' during the Tuesday news conference apparently aren't final. Instead, it is a tally of residents who sent a form in, without a home visit from a census-taker. Or as the news conference speakers said, it was a measure of the country's sense of civic responsibility.

The numbers from the actual head count reported on the long and short forms this spring will not be available until December, Mr. Prewitt said.

Columbia County residents missed their goal by 1 percentage point, with a final rate of 73 percent, according to the percentages released Tuesday. The state of Georgia missed by 3 percentage points with, a final rate of 65 percent.

Mr. Prewitt said Southern states historically have had the lowest number of respondents because large populations of immigrants who live there are unfamiliar with the process, more people in the South rent their homes, and there is more poverty and a lack of education - all of which are considered factors that keep people from returning the census form.

South Carolina - at 59 percent - had the worst response rate in the continental United States; only Alaska and Puerto Rico had worse.

Aiken County had a 59 percent response rate; its goal was 62 percent.

The Augusta Census office will close permanently Sept. 29.

Reach Clarissa J. Walker at (706) 828-3851.

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