The coronavirus pandemic isn’t stopping New Yorkers from doing all they can to get their neighbors counted in the 2020 Census.
Nearly 1 million city residents were contacted via text on Sunday and Monday and urged by hundreds of city volunteers to fill out the Census as part of “Text Out the Count,” officials said.
Of the 978,195 New Yorkers contacted, 116,159 sent back replies, including 35,116 who said they had completed the Census and 4,925 who said they plan to complete it.
City officials were pleased with the early results.
“Whether it’s funding for hospitals and children’s health insurance, or data used by the NYC Department of Health to determine responses for communities, New Yorkers care about their city and know how important the census is to our future – which is why when we put out a call for volunteers, we got an overwhelming response,” said Julie Menin, the city’s census director.
“COVID-19 may be keeping New Yorkers in their homes, but it’s not stopping them from generously coming together to help our city fight for what’s ours.”
The city’s self-response rate is off to a good start, scoring 15.1 percent a little over a week into the Census process.
In 2010, the self-response rate was 6 percent at the end of the first week.
The Census helps determine how much federal funding municipalities receive from a pool of hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked for important programs and services, including healthcare, schools and mass transit.
During the 2010 Census, city residents only had a 61.9 percent initial self-response rate while the national rate was 76 percent, potentially costing the city billions in federal aid.
– You can fill out the 2020 Census online at home by visiting: https://2020census.gov/