North Wake News

As the deadline for 2020 Census enumeration approaches, Wake County leaders are urging citizens who haven’t responded to the 2020 Census to do so soon, Wake County officials said. 

“A brief moment of your time will pay big dividends for the next 10 years for all of us here in Wake County,” Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Vickie Adamson said in the Sept. 16 release. “Currently, 71.8% of Wake County households have responded to the census. That’s great, but we need that number to be higher to make sure we don’t miss out on federal and state resources—and we still have time to make that happen.”

The 2020 Census will be used to determine how $675 billion in federal funding is distributed. 

Each person in North Carolina not counted represents a loss of approximately $1,500 to $2,500 in federal and state funding per year, the release said. That equals a loss of $15,000 to $25,000 over the next decade for every person not counted in the Census.

The Census will also determine how North Carolina is represented in Congress. The state is projected to gain an additional seat in the House of Representatives if it can get a complete count.

The impact of COVID-19 has made it harder to get an accurate count for the 2020 Census.

Because of safety concerns, in-person outreach efforts had to be canceled and census takers were delayed in getting out in the field and, which meant losing opportunities to connect with people one-on-one, the release said

At the same time, COVID-19 also emphasized the importance of getting a complete count. 

The millions of dollars of federal CARES Act funding allocated to Wake County used for testing and tracing; PPE, food and Chromebook distribution; housing assistance; transit operations; and utility assistance payments were based on 2010 census counts. 

Community members can find full details on how to respond to the 2020 Census online, by phone or by mail at 2020census.gov and wakegov.com/census.