Mich. census response rate fighting for top in nation

By Hanna LoPatin

Daily Staff Reporter

Since the completed Census 2000 forms were due last Saturday, Michigan has been battling it out with Nebraska, Ohio and Iowa to be number one in the country in response rates.

As of yesterday, Michigan was running third with 60 percent behind Nebraska and Iowa tied with 61 percent, and Ohio with 62 percent.

"I'm pleased," said Michigan Department of Budget and Management spokeswoman Kelly Chesney. "But there are some areas throughout the state where we need to encourage participation."

The high response rates are largely concentrated in Southeastern Michigan with Gratiot County leading the way at 85.7 percent.

Sixty-two percent of Washtenaw County residents responded as well as 63 percent of Ann Arbor residents - both figures well above the national average of 55 percent.

Between 30 percent and 50 percent of Northern Michigan and the upper peninsula residents responded. Lake County is at a low of 30 percent. Chesney attributes the low response in the north to the sprawling population in rural areas.

"Some questionnaires got out to the U.P. area slower than they did" to the suburbs and cities, she said.

Chesney said Michigan's response rate is "one of the best in the nation, but we at the state feel we can do much better than that."

Michigan has set its response rate goal at 77 percent. "We anticipate meeting that goal and are optimistic," she said.

Local Census Office Manager Patty Van Buren Craig said Michigan's success is not by accident. "People here are knowledgeable," she said. "They've come to understand that the census bureau is our link to getting our money back.'

Plus, she said, Michigan lost two Congressional seats in the 1990 Census and are cautious about it this time around.

Although the deadline for the census was April 1, Chesney said they will accept forms until April 15 when they will begin door-to-door questioning of non-respondents. But Craig said April 1 is the deadline for counting people.

"We don't count a baby born April 2," she said.

But mailing census forms are not the only way the Census Bureau gets its information. Craig said they are currently working on their group quarters enumeration by going to nursing homes and other group residencies. "Dorms are included in that count," she said.

Chesney said that in Lansing, Census crews are working late at night to encourage the homeless to fill out a census. "They looked under bridges, in doorjambs, trying to count as many as possible," she said. "People have been very cooperative in the Lansing area."

Kinesiology junior Adam Adkins said he doesn't know if the census sent to his house was filled out because he doesn't look at the mail.

But if he had seen the census, Adkins said he would fill it out "because I'm interested where our money goes."

Students can get involved in the Census by being a field worker during the summer. Craig said she is hiring 1,000 people to work - and so far they have 408.