If you see someone walking up to your door with a pen and a clip-board, they’re probably not selling anything, they just want to make sure you’ve been counted.
The Census Bureau is going door to door to account for every dwelling in the state. Dennis Johnson with the US Census regional office in Kansas City says they’re responsible for seven states, including Missouri. They’ve been going door to door since the beginning of May; they hope to have every home processed by the end of June or beginning of July.
Johnson says just over 70 percent of Missourians mailed in their census forms, and now workers will hit every address missed in efforts to reach 100 percent. That’s about 600,000 dwellings that need to be visited.
They’re taking a different approach to those who don’t have an address. Johnson says they’ve been working with local shelters and community outreach groups for a couple of years in anticipation of counting the homeless and indigent.
To those who haven’t mailed in their forms, Johnson says don’t bother. There’s already someone headed to your doorstep. He says people can fill out their form and hand it to the worker when they arrive if they want to simplify matters.
Johnson says federal funding and the number of Representatives our state has in Congress rests on the outcome of Census numbers — two important reasons everyone needs to be counted.
According to 2000 Census numbers, there were nearly 6 million people living in Missouri ten years ago.
Jessica Machetta reports [Download / listen Mp3, 1:12 min.]
