Census finished in Madera
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Debi Bray, left, and Toni Jordan enjoy a Census celebration lunch on Nov. 10.
Every 10 years everyone living in the United States is counted and this decade’s count is finished.
Madera County tallied 99.7 percent of residents; 62.5 percent of household self-responded and 37.2 percent were counted by census takers. Thousands of Madera County residents were hired in order to facilitate the operation as quickly as possible.
“As of Oct. 16, the U.S Census Bureau reported 99.9 percent of households had been accounted for, with 33.1 percent counted by census takers and other field data collection operations, and 66.8 percent of housing units responding online, by phone or by mail,” Eric Martinez, Project Coordinator at the Madera Coalition for Community Justice said. “My role throughout the campaign was to coordinate outreach efforts and provide partners with the appropriate information and resources to share.”
The purpose of the census is to count everyone living in the U.S.
The count helps with various things from allocating the appropriate funds for services, scientific research, business decisions, to political representation.
The more people that are counted, the more funding Madera County receives for schools, roads, and services. It is also a reference businesses can utilize in checking if there is a big enough population to help support business which, in return, creates jobs for residents.
“The census only occurs every 10 years which is why it’s so critical to ensure everyone is count and we achieve an accurate and complete count,” Martinez said.
Preparation for Census 2020 began two years ago and with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the operation slowed and there is still work left to do. The remaining work that is left is just processing the information that was collected by all the collaborating partners and census questionnaire submitted throughout the Census campaign.
“Preparation for Census 2020 began two years ago with getting things in line. Summer of 2019, we started creating awareness and educating folks on the subject, as we got closer to Census day April 1, we ramped things up by motivating people to participate,” Martinez said.
“Census operations ended October 16 after being extended due to the impact of COVID-19. Although operations ended, there still remains another half year or so of work left to compile and analyze all the data collected.”
Once all the data is compiled and analyzed there will be a better picture of the demographics of the Madera County region.
