Among major West Coast cities, only Los Angeles has a worse response rate on the 2020 census than San Francisco. Both urban centers are behind the national and statewide response rates for the decennial count of the country’s population.
As of Friday, August 14, San Francisco’s response rate stood at 62%, still behind its 2010 census response rate of 68.5%. With Los Angeles at 53.8%, the two major metropolitan areas are behind California’s statewide response rate of 65.1% and the national response rate of 63.6%.
And due to a change made by census officials, there is little more than a month and a half left for people to fill out their census forms. Initially pushed back to October 31 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak having upended plans for the census count, the deadline for households to fill out their forms is now September 30.
“We are taking steps and adapting our operations to make sure everyone is counted, while keeping everyone safe,” stated U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham, Ph.D., August 14, in releasing the latest update on the count. “Our commitment to a complete and accurate 2020 census is absolute. In this challenging environment, we are deploying these tactics to make sure we reach every household in every community.”
Continuing a trend the Bay Area Reporter has tracked all year long, San Francisco remains a laggard in terms of census response rates when compared not only to major metropolitan areas in California, Oregon, and Washington states but also other densely populated counties in the Golden State. For instance, the city of San Diego is at 69.9%, San Jose is at 72%, Portland is at 70.8%, and Seattle is at 73.8%.