
By Rylie Friesen—
The self-response rate for the 2020 US Census is lower than officials hoped for in Citrus Heights, but still well-above the state and national response rate.
As of Saturday, the US Census website showed Citrus Heights with a 70 percent self-response rate to the census, compared to the national rate of 60.9 percent and California’s response rate of 62.1 percent. Of those that have responded already, more than 8 out of 10 Citrus Heights households have opted to respond using the internet, according to the Census Bureau’s website.
Although hampered by stay-at-home orders, the US Census Bureau reported that its Sacramento area census office restarted operations earlier this month. Field workers will begin non-response followup operations to ensure an accurate count of the entire population.
The census is a nationwide headcount of the total United States population that takes place every ten years and is mandated by the U.S. Constitution for purposes of determining how many representatives each state will have in congress.
Billions of dollars in federal funding are allocated to states and communities based on census data, meaning that failure to respond to the census could result in an undercount of the population and lead to less funding for that area.
Residents can fill out the census online, over the phone with a live person, or through mail. Responses can be submitted at 2020census.gov.
Related: 8 things Citrus Heights residents should know about the 2020 Census