The 2020 Census is happening now and Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments would like to remind citizens of the importance of responding to the census. Regional Planning Director, Michael Bryant took some time to speak with Castle Country Radio about what the census does for our area.
“It’s a count of the population every ten years and so the nice thing to think about with the census is its every single person throughout the entire country that doesn’t ask if you are legal or illegal, it doesn’t ask anything like that; it doesn’t ask if you’re republican or democrat, or any political party it just wants to know how many people were living in your household as of April 1,” said Bryant. Census responses are used to produce statistics about how many people live in what areas and who they are by age, sex, race and ethnicity.
“You can still do it online, you can’t do it by mail from what I understand because that time has passed but you can do it online, you can do it by phone, and there are the Census Takers coming by but they’re only come by the homes that have not already done it,” stated Bryant. If someone visits your home later this year to collect information for the 2020 Census, check to make sure they have a valid ID badge with their photograph, a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark, and an expiration date. Census workers may also carry Census Bureau bags and other equipment with the Census Bureau logo.
Completing the census helps that local area with various federal funding/grants. “The Census likes to throw out about funding is for each individual in a community, in Carbon County that means about $1,800.00 of funding that comes to the area from various entities whether its federal, philanthropic, state, whatever, but all of those are based of census counts and how much money is potentially deemed as needed for the area,” explained Bryant. The census provides critical data that can be used to determine the needs of an area so its very important that every household complete the census.
To learn more about the census visit https://2020census.gov/