Local Census Response Rate Climbs to 70 Percent

The city’s census self-response rate has reached 70.2 percent, according to online data.

The number is up from last month when just more than 65 percent of local residents had completed the survey which is taken once every 10 years.

The numbers don’t include responses taken at the door by census workers, which means Pasadena’s response rate is well above 70 percent.

“Based on the current self-response rate, we anticipate crossing the 71 percent threshold by next week,” said Tiffany Wright, community outreach and media specialist

“We’ve made a strong push over the last few months to remind residents how important the census is for them and for our community as a whole,” Wright said. “Every person who isn’t counted means money lost — money that could be used to support public schools, health care services, housing assistance, job creation, public transit, and so many more services residents of all ages depend on.”

The Secretary of Commerce has announced a target date of Oct. 5 to conclude the 2020 Census self-response and field data collection operations, according to the US Census Bureau.

This census is particularly crucial, for the first time in history, California is at risk of losing two seats in Congress due to potential undercounts, including one seat for Pasadena’s local representative.

Population counts from the 2020 census will not only be used to determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets for the next decade but also used to decide the distribution of nearly $900 billion in federal funding for such things as schools, road construction and repair, and many other public services and projects.

The city has been pushing for a successful response to the Census since last year, but all of that was impacted by the pandemic and other issues.

“COVID, civil unrest, fires, air quality all took the attention off of the importance of Census, yet we tried to highlight all these topics need strong leaders, social services, medical, first responders and education to help move us forward and all the items rely on an accurate and high count to complete their due diligence,” said Pasadena Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian.

The National Urban League and several other organizations, including the city of Los Angeles, had sued the government, asking for a preliminary injunction to block the government from concluding the count on Sept. 30.

City officials feared a potentially devastating undercount among hard-to-count residents, some of them immigrants fearing the information on the Census would be used as a tool for immigration agents.

The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from including a question in the Census about immigration status.

“Given the fact that the administration seemed determined to suppress responses, everything they did was designed to try and discourage people from answering the Census. If we wind up getting a response rate that approaches where we were last time, then I think we’re doing very well, extraordinarily well,” said Mayor Terry Tornek.