EMBARGOED UNTIL 11:30 A.M., EDT, APRIL 19, 2000(Wednesday)
Decennial Media Relations Team CB00-CN.35
301-457-3691/301-457-3620 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: 2000usa@census.gov
Response Rate for Census 2000 Matches 1990 Rate
The Census Bureau announced today that "the initial response rate" for
Census 2000 - the percentage of questionnaires returned before enumerators
begin knocking on the doors of nonrespondents later this month - was 65
percent, matching the 1990 rate.
"We are gratified with the nation's response," Secretary of Commerce
William M. Daley said in a statement. "This initial response shows that
the hard work of Census Bureau professionals, who planned and executed
Census 2000, kept the bureau on track for a very successful census, the
first of the new century."
Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt said, "I believe this American
achievement represents a significant reversal in the trend toward civic
disengagement. We did better than we planned (61 percent) and we matched
what we did in 1990.
"Now our job is cut out for us: we will make every effort, beginning on
April 27, to contact all of those who did not return their forms so that
we can achieve a 100-percent count of our nation's population. And we ask
for the public's cooperation in this endeavor."
About 120 million census questionnaires were mailed or hand-delivered to
homes across the country in March. As questionnaires were returned, the
Census Bureau posted daily, from March 27 to April 11, on its Internet
site the rates of return for the country, the
states and about 38,000 local and tribal governments.
Under a promotional campaign called '90 Plus Five, the Census Bureau
challenged the nation, the states and local communities to do as well as
they did in 1990, plus 5 percent. By April 18, about 15 percent of the
entities had met their goals.
By April 11, the Census Bureau reported that the response rate - the
number of those who either mailed back, transmitted via the Internet or
had a telephone assistance operator take their answers over the phone -
stood at 62 percent, a percentage point better than what it had projected
for planning and budgetary purposes.
In the next phase of the census, called "non-response follow-up," as
many as half a million temporary workers, with address lists and maps,
will visit housing units the Census Bureau did not hear from. They will
make up to six attempts to contact nonresponding households - three
personal visits and three phone calls.
This operation will extend through July 7.
