Census Mail Participation - March 27

[renf]

As of this morning, the mail back percents for this year's census for the
ten largest cities in Michigan were as follows:

Warren 48%
Livonia 47%
Sterling Heights 47%
Troy 44%
Ann Arbor 35%
Dearborn 34%
Grand Rapids 33%
Lansing 32%
Flint 30%
Detroit 21%

[Retroit]

How much of this is a reflection of participation rates and how much is a result of foreclosed/vacant addresses?

[Valerie]

I was playing around with the Census Participation map the other day and read into this very question. For the 2010 census, they changed their tracking from mail response rate to mail participation rate. The mail participation rate excludes all census forms that were returned to the government as undeliverable - and will likely help eliminate counting vacant houses into this equation.

How much of this is a reflection of participation rates and how much is a result of foreclosed/vacant addresses?

[Retroit]

Thanks. I wonder how mail to a foreclosed/vacant home become "undeliverable"? By someone putting a "stop" on the mail at the post office? [[Obvious question?)

And if this is the case, why such a low participation rate in Detroit? Surely the people who are most in need of and eager to receive government money would know by now how important it is to be counted. It would be a shame if only "3/5ths" of them ended up being so.

[emu steve]

I assume the two major reasons for non-response are:

1). The occupants didn't complete the questionnaire,

2). The housing unit is vacant.

Both of which could be signficant in Detroit.

[emu steve]

BTW, the census is a census of population and housing.

They attempt to enumerate all persons and housing units, even though vacant.

We focus on population but the Census Bureau does a tremendous amount of work collecting housing data.

[renf]

The denominator for the mail participation rate this census excludes forms returned by the Post Office because it cannot be delivered. If a housing unit exists, it should get a form. Post
Office staff have no official way of knowing whether a housing unit is occupied or not. An empty foreclosed property will, presumably, be visited by a census worker after May 1 to determine if anyone lives there. And the census does count all housing units, empty or occupied.

[iheartthed]

Thanks. I wonder how mail to a foreclosed/vacant home become "undeliverable"? By someone putting a "stop" on the mail at the post office? [[Obvious question?)

And if this is the case, why such a low participation rate in Detroit? Surely the people who are most in need of and eager to receive government money would know by now how important it is to be counted. It would be a shame if only "3/5ths" of them ended up being so.

Detroit's participation rate is about on par with other urban areas in the country [[especially those that are predominantly minority). For instance, Chicago's participation rate is 25%, NYC is 21%, Philadelphia is 27%, and Newark NJ is 15%.

[lilpup]

why such a low participation rate in Detroit? Surely the people who are most in need of and eager to receive government money would know by now how important it is to be counted. It would be a shame if only "3/5ths" of them ended up being so.

functional illiteracy?

[bartock]

I keep wondering if they know how many households are not responding to the census, then why have the mailings in the first place? Seriously, wouldn't it be cheaper and a little better for the economy to hire more people to knock on doors than to have spent all of that money on ads and mailings? [[And I would tend to doubt that census mailings created or saved an U.S. Postal Service jobs).

[gazhekwe]

Maybe lots of people are waiting until Thursday.

[bartock]

Maybe lots of people are waiting until Thursday.

...actually, upon reflection I had a bit of a knee-jerk.

[renf]

The least costly way for the Census Bureau to gather information is by mail. It will cost an
average of about $60 to enumerate a housing unit in person. This involves four days of
training from each follow-up enumerator plus the hourly salary and travel costs of sending out
enumerators to knock on the doors of those who have not mailed backed their forms. Of
course, empty housing units such as those foreclosed and unoccupied must be visited by a
person to determine no one lives there.
If the occupants of a housing units have not mailed back a form that arrives at a Census
Bureau processing center by April 9, another census form will be mailed to that housing
unit. There will be some people who sent back their form on April 8 who receive another
one of the 12th or 13th of April who may complain that the Census Bureau is spending too
many taxpayers dollars.