We have talked about the census before, and the importance to everyone in getting an accurate count of everyone who is in the area. One extremely important thing we all learned during our time during the pandemic so far, it is that we need good schools, good hospitals, and good libraries. None of that just happens – it requires money. Money comes to communities that have people. And the only way the government knows about those people is from the census.

So, if you have not yet filled out your census: PLEASE DO IT TODAY!

Do it because you are a good person, and it’s the right thing to do. That is true. Do it because you are feeling selfish for your community and yourself and you want good things for yourself. It doesn’t really matter why – it just matters that it happens.

Minnesota is doing really well in getting our census data submitted, so yay to us! But we need more people to do this. And of course, it would be great if people in other states were doing this well, so tell your friends and family to get in on this too.

Check out the blog post the map above came from:

“”The U.S. Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month sooner than previously announced, the bureau’s director confirmed Monday in a statement,” Hansi Lo Wang reports for NPR. “That includes critical door-knocking efforts and collecting responses online, over the phone and by mail.”
That means rural areas are less likely to be counted, since non-metropolitan counties have a lower response rate than metro counties. “Nationally, 62.8% of households have responded to the census,” Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder. “Only a quarter of non-metropolitan counties have met or exceeded that response rate, while more than half of metropolitan counties have.”
Of the nation’s 1,971 non-metropolitan counties, 38% have a response rate under 50%, as of July 29, Marema reports.
An undercount of the rural population would have wide-ranging implications beyond Electoral College votes and apportionment of U.S. House and state legislative seats. “The Census website includes examples of how the population count can affect community programs in education,  health care, hospital funding, and more,” Marema notes.”