26 days remain to complete 2020 Census

San Marcos has 26 days left to complete the 2020 Census, which determines how billions of taxpayer dollars flow back into the community for the next 10 years.

Funding for health clinics, fire departments, schools, roads and highways is all distributed based on population counts in the census. An inaccurate count directly impacts whether a community gets its fair share of funding for these social services and their ability to provide for the real number of residents. It also impacts accurate political representation as districts are redrawn and reapportioned. 

County Judge Ruben Becerra revealed in the City of San Marcos’s SMTX 2020 on Wednesday that San Marcos is last in the county for census responses with only 46% counted. Hays County as a whole is 58.9% counted. 

The 2010 Census response rate for San Marcos at 62.5% and Hays County at 67.7% left millions of taxpayer dollars on the table that could have come back to fund valuable public services. 

Current response rates for the rest of Hays County are as follows: Mountain City at 90%, Bear Creek at 80%, City of Hays at 76%, Kyle at 67%, Dripping Springs at 61%, Woodcreek at 60%, Wimberley at 57%, Uhland at 55% and Niederwald at 54%.

Experts say 80% counted or more is ideal to receive adequate funding for community needs. 

With only 26 days left to be counted and the U.S. Census Bureau encouraging everyone in Central Texas to respond before the Sept. 30 deadline, it is unclear how many more responses they will receive. 

When the U.S. Census Bureau began door-knocking follow-ups on Aug. 9 to count households that had not yet responded, San Marcos's self-response rate was 18.7 points behind its final 2010 rate and Hays County's self-response rate was 11.1 points behind its final 2010 rate. 

That means a greater share of non-responding homes will need to be visited by census takers, an especially challenging task now that the Census Bureau has shortened the door-knocking time frame by four weeks.

In nearly one month of door-knocking, San Marcos’s rate has only increased by 2.2% and Hays County’s increased only by 2.3%. 

Currently, Texas has an 79.5% total response rate, which includes self-response and Nonresponse Followup (NRFU) operations.

Thousands of census takers are working in Texas to visit households that have not yet responded to the 2020 Census. In most cases, census workers will make multiple attempts at each housing unit to count residents in that household. Census takers will be wearing masks and are trained in social distancing protocols and other health and safety guidance. If no one is home at the time of the visit, the census taker will leave a notice of visit, which includes information on how the household can self-respond to the census. 

Even though census takers are working in the field, it is not too late to self-respond to the 2020 Census and limit the chances of a census taker visiting a person’s home. People can respond online at 2020census.gov, by phone at 844-330-2020 (English), or by mailing back the paper form that was delivered to the household. 

In addition to census takers in the field, the Census Bureau is using additional ways to collect responses to the 2020 Census. Census takers have been trained to call some households that have not yet responded and leave a voicemail if no one answers. The Census Bureau has also sent out a seventh mailing, which includes an additional paper questionnaire to households that receive mail at a physical address. 

The Census Bureau’s Mobile Questionnaire Assistance (MQA) program is also visiting locations across the state to encourage and assist people to self-respond to the 2020 Census. MQA representatives have visited grocery stores, food banks, libraries, unemployment offices, back-to-school drives and houses of worship. The goal is to reach people at locations where they naturally congregate to assist with completing questionnaires and answer questions that the public may have.

The Census Bureau has a statutory deadline to deliver apportionment data by Dec. 31, 2020. The online and phone portals are available in 13 languages. In addition, 59 non-English languages are supported through online video guides.

For more information and for additional assistance, please visit 2020census.gov.