South Carolinians rank 49th in nation for filling out census forms

By Christy Mullins - cmullins@heraldonline.com

Census 2010 is coming, and numbers from a decade ago show South Carolinians are second worst in the nation at filling out their forms.

Only 59 percent of census surveys were returned by S.C. residents in 2000, the last time the census was conducted, and about 48,000 people in South Carolina went uncounted.

The state's response rate was higher only than Alaska's 56 percent in 2000, when the national rate was 67 percent.

“Some people just don't understand the importance of the census,” said Michael Sponhour, spokesman for the State Budget and Control Board.

That importance: millions in lost federal tax dollars that would have gone to better S.C. roads, vocational education, crime victim assistance, health care and other programs driven by census population numbers.

Since 2000, the last time the census was conducted, South Carolina has lost out on at least $60 million per year in federal funding, Sponhour said — even after officials went door-to-door to collect completed forms.

And with South Carolina inching closer to gaining a seventh seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a proper head count in 2010 would help tremendously, state Sen. Wes Hayes said.

“No question it's important,” the Rock Hill Republican said, “in order to have adequate representation in Congress.”

Postal workers will deliver the initial 10-question survey in mid-March 2010. In areas not served by the U.S. Postal Service, census workers will deliver the form packages between March 1 and April 30.

Respondents are asked to return their completed forms by April 1, National Census Day.

Follow-up surveys, called undercounts, determine the people missing from the census. The state loses money for each person not counted.

Cities and counties receive direct state aid for every person counted within their borders — but many still duck from the radar.

Sponhour said there are a number of reasons.

“Some people, especially in the immigrant community, are maybe a little afraid of the census,” he said. “And sometimes it's a simple matter of, people don't look that closely at their mail.”

That's why the U.S. Census Bureau sends out thousands of people, called enumerators, each year to knock on the doors of homes for which no census form has been returned.

Enumerators will visit those households up to six times before interviewing neighbors for information about who lives there. If census workers still get no response, that person is considered an “undercount.”

Rania Jamison, now public information coordinator for the Budget and Control Board, was one of those knockers in 2000.

She also was an address canvasser — another type of census worker who updates address listings by visiting land and tracking it electronically with a GPS device.

“I would often find that people didn't fill out the form because they didn't understand how it related to the things they thought were important,” Jamison said, “how the census connected to the goals they had for themselves and their loved ones.

“When people realized what it was about, their guard immediately came down.”

South Carolina is making unprecedented efforts to improve its response rate this year, Sponhour said, including outreach projects and heavier marketing in 10 to 12 counties with the lowest response rates, not including York, Chester or Lancaster Counties.

Marketing will target many Hispanic communities, he said, and will include billboards and radio programs.

The advertising campaign will start next month.