Census comes in $1.6 billion under budget

By Shea Northcut

ensus Bureau Director Robert Groves emphasizes the phrase “Well Done America” for helping the 2010 census come in $1.6 billion under budget. Census data will be made public Dec. 31. SHFWire photo by Shea Northcut

WASHINGTON – Census officials announced Tuesday that the 2010 survey is $1.6 billion under budget because of strong citizen participation.

The 22 percent savings from a $7.4 billion budget is credited to two central things – a high mail-back rate of census forms and the lack of emergencies, such as a major storm or flu epidemic. Census Bureau officials also said they had better plans than in previous years, and enumerators were more experienced and more productive than they imagined due to a larger hiring pool.

“Paying relentless attention to detail, setting ambitious goals and creating precise metrics to measure performance are principles to make this census a resounding success,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

Roughly 255,000 community-based organizations – such as religious groups, businesses and nonprofits – partnered with the Census Bureau to encourage people to fill out and return census forms. The bureau used a higher advertising budget to advertise in more languages and to target communities with low response rates in the past.

Of 565,000 temporary census workers who visited homes or telephoned homes that had not returned a form, only 0.2 percent collected inaccurate data, according to Census Bureau Director Robert Groves. The bureau is rechecking the work of those approximately 1,000 workers.

The high level of accuracy saved the bureau $600 million.

The main mission of the decennial census is to provide accurate data to help determine how $400 billion in

federal aid is allocated to communities for such things as education, senior services and roads. It is also used to draw boundaries for congressional districts.

To ensure accuracy, a new field verification operation was used to check addresses of forms mailed in from locations other than homes. Forms were placed at drug stores and other locations to ensure everyone had the ability to respond.

“We are going to stay out in the field until we have a resolution on every address, and we understand the population characteristics in every way we can,” Groves said.

After all major surveys are collected, a final high-quality survey system will be used, a sampling of 187,000 households, or one in 700, across the U.S. to double-check data.

“Interviewers are going to look differently than our enumerators by asking in-depth questions to make sure we have counted that house correctly and will check our census,” he said.

Survey results will be presented to the president and the country Dec. 31. Other more detailed findings, including counts of race and ethnicity, will be released in the following months.

Groves said the bureau is already thinking about the next census in 2020.

“We are heavily focusing for 2020 on how we can radically reduce the cost of the decennial census in the United States without harming the quality. … We are thinking outside of the box,” Groves said.

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