Census response rate low at MU

MU‘s response rate is 12 percent below the national average.

By Will Guldin

Published May 7, 2010

Thousands of students are about to leave MU, and many haven't filled out their census forms.

This means the U.S. Census Bureau must send enumerators, or trained census counters, to students' homes to count them during the next week. According to the Census Bureau, it costs the government about $57 to send someone to a house, versus the 42 cents it costs for someone to mail back a form.

"Your tax dollars and my tax dollars are paying for it," said Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs, who is leading MU's census effort.

The census counts everyone in the country every 10 years. Census results help the government divide federal funding among states and determine the number of House representatives a state gets, among other things.

MU and surrounding neighborhoods have an average response rate of about 60 percent. The national rate is 72 percent.

Lisa Niedert, senior research associate at the University of Michigan Population Studies Center, said college campuses often have lower response rates because students don't know if they should fill the form out at college or have their parents do it for them.

"So if you're a full-time student and you're under 25, and you're dependent on your parents, etc., then you might think they count you at home, but for census purposes you're counted where you're living or eating most of the time, which for students is college," Neidert said.

Columbia's Census Office Manager Jerry Taylor said these numbers are misleading because they are incomplete.

He said enumerators still have time to count students in places such as East Campus and apartment complexes with many students.

"We have those areas targeted, but it's going to be a real challenge to find every area that has a student concentration simply because there's a lack of manpower," Taylor said.

Scroggs said the university sent e-mail reminders and placed notices in MU Info about filling out the census.

"We've tried to get the word out through our student organizations about the importance of returning those forms," she said.

Scroggs also said the response rate at MU would be better if the timing of the census were different and if it were in an online format.

"I think they would've gotten a much better return if they could've filled it out online," she said. "I'm afraid the way the Census Bureau has chosen to collect this data hasn't caught up with this generation of students."

Although the 2010 Census isn't online, part of the 2000 Census was, Niedert said. But you had to get the census form in the mail first and then use a code on the form to fill it out online. She said this guaranteed they had the right address.

"They've got to make sure when you're doing it online that it's just not you, but it has to be tied to your actual address," Niedert said.

For something as short as the 2010 Census, which takes about 10 minutes to complete, Niedert said filling it out online once you have the form in front of you isn't practical.

As for this year, Taylor said there is still time to boost the response rate among students, but time is running out. "We're quite well aware of that and working fervently," he said.