Census: N.C. in top form

Wesley Young
April 1, 2010

People in North Carolina are returning their 2010 census forms more quickly than most folks in the country, according to the latest tabulation from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The bureau said that as of 4 p.m. yesterday, 54 percent of the households in North Carolina had mailed back census forms.

The participation rate was even higher in Forsyth County, which had a 56 percent rate of return. Nationwide, 52 percent of households sent back the 10-question forms.

Today is the official date of the 2010 census, although census officials had been encouraging people to fill out the forms as soon as they got them in March.

The census, mandated by the U.S. Constitution to be held every 10 years, determines the apportionment of U.S. representatives among states. It also plays an important role in the allocation of more than $400 billion in federal money.

"North Carolina is doing great," said Tony Jones, who handles media relations for the census office in Charlotte.

In the early counting of returned census forms, the state had lagged behind the rest of the country.

Davie and Perquimans counties shared the highest return rates - 63 percent.

In Northwest North Carolina, Yadkin and Stokes counties were also more than 60 percent, while Watauga was the lowest at 46 percent.

Typical return rates in the Piedmont included Burke County, at 56 percent; Alamance County, 57 percent; and Mecklenburg County, 50 percent.

Census officials said that no forms were mailed to people whose mail goes to a post-office box, and that people living in group settings such as rest homes and retirement communities would be counted separately.

"Nobody lives in a post-office box," Jones said, "and you can have a post-office box in Winston-Salem and actually live in Greensboro."

People who get their mail in a post-office box, along with those who don't return the mailed forms, will get an in-person visit from a census-taker sometime after May 1.

Many residents at Arbor Acres United Methodist Retirement Community have been asking why they didn't get forms, said Ken Boyles, the vice president of Arbor Acres.

"We have people in various types of accommodation, and some can fill out forms and some cannot," Boyles said. "We have been in touch with the census bureau. Their plan is to send a package to us, and we will complete the census."

Census tracts are subdivisions of a county that the bureau uses for comparisons from census to census and from neighborhood to neighborhood.

In Forsyth County's tracts, rates of participation varied widely, but rough patterns were discernible: The highest rates of return were in tracts with high income levels, and lower rates were in tracts with higher percentages of minorites.

"That is the whole idea of the partnership program, to reach out to ethnic groups," Jones said. "We have got advertising across the general spectrum which is targeted to African-Americans."

Winston Salem City Council Member Derwin Montgomery, who represents the East Ward, said he is concerned about the low participation rates among blacks.

"Our communities are some of the very communities that are in need of the dollars that are designated based on the census," he said.