ZANESVILLE, Ohio – 2020 will be here in just 19 days and as a new year begins, a new census will be taken and data utilized for the next ten years. The 2020 Census will begin on March 12. Locally, a Complete Count Committee has been formed in an effort to bolster area response numbers to the census. There are four options to complete the census: online, by phone, by mail, or through a door-to-door enumerator. Amber Kohler, with the US Census Bureau, says Complete Count Committees play an integral role in the process.
“We formed what’s called a Complete Count Committee. We like to form them in every county with our local government. We also have statewide committees and we also use community committees. The way these work is we bring a coalition of local leaders to try and educate our public about why we do the decennial census—why it is important and why they should respond.”
Census numbers are vital to the local community and determine over $675 billion of funding each year—funds utilized locally for Title One Education, fire department funding, and social programs such as WIC.
“It is the most important peacetime operation that we have. We do this once every ten years—it is our decennial—and it is our only hard count of the entire population living in the US. We use this information for many reasons. Businesses use it to decide where to open and close stores, build new manufacturing. Our local governments use it for deciding where roads need built, schools need built.”
The 2020 Census is 9 questions in length and will be collected through July of the coming year. Enumerators are needed locally and more information can be found on the Census website. Over 20% of Zanesville residents did not respond to the 2010 Census.
