Leader of city’s 2020 Census campaign
boasts boost in response rate
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
New York City outperformed
a number of
major United States cities
in terms of self-response
rate to the 2020
Census.
Initially, the United
States Census Bureau
predicted that New
York City would have
a 58% response rate,
which the city beat by
four points.
According to Julie
Menin, Director of NYC
Census 2020, New York
City had a 61.8% self-response
rate for the 2020
Census, which is a higher
response rate than
many other major U.S.
cities, including Chicago
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(60.9%), Orlando
(59.9%), Dallas (59.7%),
Atlanta (59.7%), Boston
(59.2%), Houston (58.9%),
Los Angeles (58.6%),
New Orleans (58.4%),
Baltimore (57.0%), Philadelphia
(56.9%), Miami
(53.8%), Cleveland
(51.4%), Detroit (51.0%),
and Newark (50.9%).
“We’re fighting for
our fair share of funding
and political representation,”
said Menin.
“To be that prediction
is really meaningful.
With all of these different
metrics, we outperformed
where U.S.
Census Bureau thought
we would be and outperformed
other cities.”
Menin says that this
self-response rate is
even more significant
considering that New
York City was shut down
when counting began.
“Before COVID, we
were going to open 300
centers to help New
Yorkers complete the
census — one-third of
New Yorkers have less
access to broadband,”
said Menin. “Because
of COVID, we couldn’t
open the centers and
had to pivot to virtual.
New York was literally
shut down for the
whole beginning of the
census because it was
the epicenter. We were
grappling with the biggest
crisis our city has
faced.”
NYC Census 2020
was able to back out of
their contract with the
MTA — they had originally
planned on a subway
ad campaign — and
redirected those funds
into digital and television
ads, running 34 different
media campaigns
in 27 languages. Menin
says that NYC Census
2020 phone banked over
4,000,000 calls and peer
to peer texted 7 million
New Yorkers to complete
the census. They were
able to do in-person
canvassing by mid to
late summer this year,
and held 1,000 events —
100 of which in the last
week of counting alone
— to help hard-to-reach
communities complete
the census.
According to Menin,
NYC Census also used
apps like WhatsApp and
WeChat to help reach
New York City’s immigrant
communities.
“We began utilizing
these apps to reach
these immigrant communities,
using 15 different
languages,” said
Menin. “For all the
misinformation that the
Trump administration
wrought around the
census, from trying to
add a question about citizenship
and cutting the
deadline short, all that
served to create fear
and intimidation. It was
important that we were
able to spread information
that the census is
confidential and safe to
fill out.”
The efforts of NYC
Census 2020 reached
472,000 households,
which accounts for 1.2
million New Yorkers,
without including who
filled out the census as
a result of their media
campaigns. Menin says
that every the number
of responses results in
$7,000 in funding per
household and $2,700
per person. The digital
ads they ran resulted in
nearly 1 million clickthroughs
to the Census
Bureau’s website.
For New York City,
the 61.8% self-response
rate is the most accurate
count the city will
have because it is the result
of people filling out
the census online, calling
the response hotline
or filling out the census
that was mailed to
them. Though the Census
Bureau says that
99.9% of New Yorkers
were counted with the
addition of door-knocking,
Menin says doorknocking
has proven to
not be as reliable due
to actions taken during
the 2010 Census.
“Door-knocking data
is not as reliable because
legally door knockers
could talk to a neighbor,
ask if they know who lives
there, and write it down as
a completed form. That’s
how over 1 million children
were left out in 2010,”
said Menin. “In past Census
counts, standard practices
require a certain
number of failed attempts
to answer do before speaking
to a neighbor. If someone
doesn’t answer, they
can speak to neighbors to
get data, which is a rushed
and flawed practice. The
Trump administration
wants to undercount immigrant
and people of
color communities. Adding
the citizen question,
cutting short the census
— all of these are part of
the same attempt to undercount
these communities.”
The 61.8% self-response
rate does guarantee
that New York gets the
funding and representation
it needs.
“This will result in
New York City getting the
funding and political representation
we deserve,”
said Menin. “In this current
crisis, we can not afford
to leave any dollar on
the table.”
Reach reporter Emily
Davenport by e-mail
at edavenport@qns.com
or by phone at (718) 260-
2567
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