Have you responded to the United States Census yet? Every household in Hawaii with a physical address has received a letter, giving a discrete household identification number for responding online at 2020census.gov. On the Big Island, some homes do not have a physical address. Hawaii’s response rate as of April 18 is 44.1%, the 9th worst response in the country.
Why does this matter? Frankly—money. And it’s a constitutional requirement: the U.S. Constitution mandates a census of the population every 10 years. But as to the money—federal funding is allocated based on the state’s population as determined by the U.S. Census.
According to Fortune Magazine in a November 18, 2019 story: “More than $1.5 trillion in federal funding to state and local governments is parceled out based on census data—much more than previously thought, researchers said Monday. The new total shows just how important it is to get the census numbers right every 10 years.”
According to Andrew Reamer of the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, George Washington University, the State of Hawaii in 2017 got more than $5.7 Billion in federal dollars based on the census population. The funds provide money from more than 50 programs for hospitals, health centers, programs for children, programs for older residents, transportation, housing, community development, special funding for rural community programs (i.e. Hawaii Island is considered rural), Medicare, Medicaid – and more.
And right now, as COVID-19 is ravaging the country, ensuring that Hawaii gets its fair share of federal funding is even more critical. The ability of our hospitals and community health centers to have proper funding is to some degree based on everybody in the state responding to the U.S. Census to ensure there is proper funding.
Responding is easy—go online to www.my2020census.gov and respond that way. And for households that only get mail at a P.O. Box, which will not receive a census form, they may and should go online and enter their census data.
Any household that has not responded will have received not just the initial letter but a second letter and then a blue postcard, and now will receive an actual form in the mail. Eventually census workers will come to your home to collect responses in person.
Questions? Ask online at ask.census.gov or call the Census Hotline at 844-330-2020
U.S. Census Partnership Specialist Sharlette Poe of Wai’anae discussed the importance of the census with New West Broadcasting’s Sherry Bracken in an “Island Conversations” interview that originally aired the week of April 5, 2020. You can listen to the interview at the link below.
