Mapping Out the Census
With the clock ticking, advocates for a fair, accurate, and complete count for the 2020 census are – literally – mapping out how to count every person in the United States. There is a conscious effort to identify hard-to-count (HTC) communities to enable census enumerators, state and local governments, and community nonprofits to see where resources are most needed to ensure each household and person is reached. HTCs often are located in either sparsely-populated rural areas that pose difficulty in physically locating households or densely-populated urban communities that have multi-unit, multi-occupants, and multi-family living arrangements. Certain demographic groups also pose a higher risk of being undercounted, such as children under 5, people with limited or no internet access, and recent immigrants.
Hard-to-count communities and populations may require more costly in-person follow-up. Therefore, census experts have created special tools to ease the process and make sure everyone is counted. Nonprofits active in their communities will find these easy-to-use resources invaluable in connecting with the people they serve, both now for census outreach and later for advancing their missions long after the census count is complete.
The CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research has created for the U.S. Census Bureau a nationwide map that can zoom in to the street level to determine the percentage of households in that tract that mailed back their 2010 census responses. The map is searchable by census tract, address, ZIP code, landmark, county, state, or legislative districts. Red and orange coloring allows users to immediately see where rates of response were 73 percent or less, providing visual clues to where advocates should go to educate communities about the importance of participating in the census, alert respondents about the upcoming questionnaires, and share census-activity resources.
The U.S. Census Bureau Response Outreach Area Mapper (ROAM) application also identifies HTCs and provides socioeconomic and demographic characteristic profiles of the areas. Specific and distinctive information about the make-up of these communities enables nonprofits and others to tailor communications and partnership campaigns within those communities, as well as field resources and staff requirements with proper language skills to meet the unique needs. The map allows users to add layers, like the school district, ZIP code, and response score, to determine where and what is needed within the state, district, and locality.
Finally, the most nonprofit-focused resource is one developed by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and State Count Action Network (S-CAN). The State-By-State Map helps state-based coalitions working on census outreach in their states to find contact information of trusted charitable nonprofits leading census efforts and provides state-specific featured resources in their states. External facing partners have agreed to be a resource hub and connector for others in their state looking to get involved in outreach and educational efforts on a state and local level. Often a part of their Complete Count Committee/Commission or connected with local and state government officials, external partners are a great place to start for census advocacy.
While counting every person in the country is a daunting undertaking, maps for how to get there are vital tools. Understanding geography and demography allow for a clear road ahead.
