Although the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to impact everyday life across North Carolina and this country, local officials for the 2020 Census are still pushing for everyone to be counted.

Richard Carr, chairman of Sampson County’s Complete Count Committee, is working to emphasized the importance of local residents participating while being vigilant of COVID-19. The Census is held every 10 years to count all of the citizens in the United States and other territories.

“As you could imagine, people aren’t participating as much because of what’s going on with the coronavirus,” he said. “The coronavirus is the utmost of importance right now, but at the same time we want to make sure that the Census doesn’t pass us by and not get the attention it needs. In a few months, when we get this virus under control, we still have to deal with 10 years of what we failed to do with the Census.”

For 2020, the current Census is the 24th time it was held in the country after it began in 1790, under President Thomas Jefferson.

Mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the Census provides information for congressional seating based on populations and the distribution of more than $675 billion in federal funds to communities through local, state, and federal initiatives. Some of those programs are related to health care, education, transportation, employment and housing.

According to last 2010 Census, Sampson County’s population was at 63,431. Based on early numbers, Carr said Sampson County is doing very well when it comes to participants, with 23.4 percent of residents responding — which is close the North Carolina and nationwide average, according to the www.2020census.gov website.

From that total, 8.5 percent of self-response was completed through the Internet. Statewide, the participation rate is 23.9 percent. Nationwide, it’s 26.2 percent. As of early this week, it was reported that Turkey has the lowest percentage rate and Newton Grove has the highest, with Clinton coming in at second.

“We’re doing good, but I want to encourage more people to keep participating because it’s going to be important,” Carr said.

Within the next week, everyone in Sampson County should have received Census information, according to Complete Count members. The committee is encouraging everyone to complete the Census after the first notification, immediately. Second, third and fourth notifications will be sent to homes who have not participated. Next, enumerators will be sent to residences if there’s no response to the notifications. They should be easy to identify with a badge and will collect information with an online hand-held device.

Options for completing the Census include answering questions online, by phone, or through a paper form to return in the mail, if requested. Census officials said it should take about 10 minutes to finish. It will ask citizens to provide their address, the number of people living there, home ownership, age, gender, birth date, ethnicity, and relationship status.

Information is safe, confidential and is protected by federal law. Bank accounts, credit accounts, social security number, and other private information will not be collected by Census officials. Everything is kept by a secure system and by law, individual records from the decennial censuses are kept confidential for more than 70 years and are released for historical purposes.

For more information about the 2020 Census, visit www.census.gov.

Community members receive important information about the 2020 Census during a NAACP meeting.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_Census__5.jpgCommunity members receive important information about the 2020 Census during a NAACP meeting.

https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_Census_2020.jpg
Sampson seeing progress with responses

By Chase Jordan

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Reach Chase Jordan at 910-592-8137. Follow us on Twitter at @SampsonInd and like us on Facebook.