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Census return rates in Ohio down slightly

Nationwide, census returns are up; Dayton and Trotwood produce lowest rates locally

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By Ken McCall, Staff Writer Updated 11:08 PM Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The preliminary numbers are in on how many people mailed back their census forms nationwide, and the U.S. Census Bureau is happy.

Ohio, however, was not one of the 28 states that matched or exceeded its mailback rate in the 2000 Census.

While the national rate of mailback was 72 percent — 3 percentage points higher than the 2000 Census — the percentage for Ohioans, though higher than the national average at 76 percent — lost a percentage point from the last count.

That means close to 2.8 million Ohioans have yet to be counted, according to the bureau’s latest population estimates. Across the nation, the total is more than 86 million.

But Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said the uncounted will begin to be counted beginning Saturday, May 1, when some 600,000 Census workers will begin knocking on doors across the country.

Groves, who announced the mailback results Wednesday, April 28, in Washington, D.C., said the decennial count was only half over.

“Those who didn’t get forms will be visited,” he said. “Those who got forms and didn’t mail them out will be visited. We will collect information on everyone before we are through, and that’s the second half that we are now beginning.”

Groves said he and his staff were “dancing down the hallways” of their Suitland, Md., office because of the higher-than-anticipated mailback rates. “It was a wonderful display, we think, of civic participation,” he said.

Data released by the bureau on Wednesday showed where census staff will have to do the most door-knocking locally.

Dayton and Trotwood were the local cities with the lowest mail-back participation at 69 percent and 70 percent. Dayton, though, showed a 3 percentage point increase from the 2000 census, while Trotwood dropped three points.

Mason led area cities with an 84 percent return rate, followed by Centerville, Loveland and Springboro at 83 percent. Like the state, all were down a few percentage points from 10 years ago.

Groves said distressed neighborhoods that have been hardest hit by the housing and foreclosure crisis will be a challenge because it’s often difficult to determine when a house is abandoned.

In addition, he said, bureau research has found that poorer areas have the lowest participation rates.

“Tracts that have high (numbers of) rental units, low education and low income ... those are the neighborhoods that we will be visiting disproportionately in the coming weeks.”

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2393 or kmccall @DaytonDailyNews.com.

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