By Larry Jones
July 4, 2011

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, Chair of the Conference of Mayors 2010 Census Task Force, reminded mayors that the work of the Task Force began two years ago with a focus on helping cities prepare for the person-to-person head count in 2010. Now that the results are in, Mallory told members of the Task Force some cities have success stories while others do not. On a positive note, Rochester Hill (MI) Mayor Bryan Barnett was invited to tell mayors about his successful experience.

Barnett described how his city invested a lot of energy and about $10,000 in resources to encourage residents to mail back their census forms. As a result, the city had the highest mail back rate in Oakland County, the second highest in the state of Michigan and tied for fifth in the nation. For a city that was losing population, he said he was pleased his city grew by five percent, and now has a population over 73,000. And based on that, the city estimates it will receive an additional $153,000 in federal funds annually and $1.5 million over the nextdecade.

U. S. Census Bureau Director Dr. Robert Groves reviewed the results of the 2010 census, sharing with mayors that the Bureau appreciates the support of the nation’s mayors and the leadership of the Conference of Mayors Task Force in conducting the census. He said the Bureau formed alliances with 257,000 different organizations, which provided an enormous assistance. Census forms were mailed to every household and after residents were given time to mail them back, 600,000 census workers spread out across the nation knocking on the doors of those who did not respond. Several follow-up visits were made to get census information from every non-response household.

The Census Bureau considers the 2010 Census a success. The mail response rate was 74 percent that is equal to the 2000 response rate. It was completed on schedule and under budget. In summary, Groves said the nation grew by 9.7 percent, reaching a total population of 308,745,538. The nation’s population growth rate is down compared to the growth rate in previous decades. Hispanics accounted for the largest share of the population growth. The number of foreign born and older residents is increasing. In general, southern and western states are growing at a much higher rate than those in the north east and Midwest. With regards to apportionment, Texas will gain four House seats, Florida will gain two and Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Utah and Washington State will all pick up one. On the other hand, New York and Ohio will lose two seats, while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania will all lose one seat.

Groves told mayors that no census is perfect and several local communities are challenging their census numbers. He reminded mayors that the Census Bureau has a Census Count Question Resolution Program and there are three types of challenges that will be accepted: boundary challenges, geocoding challenges and coverage challenges. He also said that the Census Bureau cannot reconstruct or redo the 2010 census which was a snapshot of the population on April 1, 2010. He explained the census count for a state or local areas cannot be changed for purposes of apportionment. However, if a city demonstrates that it has more people than reflected in the 2010 census, the correct number could be used for purposes of distributing federal funds.