By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | What takes only minutes to complete but the results last a decade? The U.S. census. But so far, it seems participation in the 2020 census is muted due to the pandemic.
If the 2010 census was any measure, April should have been peak self-response time for the 2020 census, according to Dennis Dickerson, head program manager of the Health and Demographic Division for the S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, which is the lead state agency for the census.
So far, South Carolina’s self-response rate is at 46.7 percent. The final self-response rate in 2020 was 64.7 percent. After a self-response period (held either online or mail-in), census workers begin hitting the streets to gather up more responses. That secondary effort has been delayed until after June 1 in response to the pandemic.
Nationwide, there has been 50.7 percent response rate, putting South Carolina in the bottom of the self-response rate pack.
“It’s kind of an unprecedented time,” Dickerson said. “It’s taken some of the focus away from the need to finish the census.”
Census numbers matter because they are the root data for apportioning money and electoral representations for the state and federal government.
“[If numbers drop,] it certainly means a loss of federal funds because a lot of federal funds are based on population,” said West Columbia Democratic Sen. Nikki Setzler, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee. “We are encouraging everybody to sign up.”
According to the S.C. Treasurer’s Office, each year $675 billion in federal funds are distributed to state and local governments to support numerous activities that take place in South Carolina. Part of the federal funds make up about one-third of state spending.
South Carolina’s newest congressional district, coastal District 7 — drawn to accommodate the state’s growing population after the 2010 census — has the second lowest self-response rate at 39.9 percent. Only District 6 in the middle of the state fared worse with a 39.3 percent self-response rate. The congressional district with the best response rate so far was the Upstate’s District 5 at 51.4 percent.
Field data collection operations and self-response will be completed by Oct. 31. The U.S. Census Bureau said it will deliver results to the President by April 30, 2021, and redistricting data to be delivered to the states no later than July 31, 2021.
- Want to complete the census? Click here.
In other news:
McMaster debuts accelerateSC. Gov. Henry McMaster announced Monday the creation of accelerateSC, a coordinated economic revitalization planning team involving more than 30 small and large business owners, leaders in manufacturing, healthcare professions, education professionals, and local government officials. The team met for the first time Thursday as McMaster and other state leadership seeks a way forward post-pandemic. See who’s on the team here.
Public schools closed through spring semester. McMaster announced Wednesday that public schools will be closed through the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. To see how public school teachers have adapted to classes online, read this story from the Charleston City Paper.
High number of marijuana arrests in S.C. As the state legislature has stumbled to legalize medical marijuana or decriminalize recreational marijuana, South Carolina has become a hot spot for racially disparate arrests for possession. Read the full story here.
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