Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

You Count! Census Set To Begin Soon

Everyone counts.

This message is being spread across Arkansas by Secretary of State Sharon Priest.

Priest is on the road, visiting every one of the state's 75 counties, trying to get people involved with the 2000 census.

The census is done on a national level once every 10 years. When the last one was done in 1990, there was a national undercount of 5 percent.

This translated into a huge loss of state and federal funding for communities throughout the US.

The federal government, Priest said, spends more than $6 billion in counting the population.

The census is important, she said, as it helps in keeping track of genealogy, aids cities in planning for hospitals, housing needs and tells how many people are displaced by disasters.

Last year there was a record 107 tornadoes touch down in Arkansas. Census information helps show how many people are affected so the proper aid can be administered.

Believe it or not the census actually helps those in the medical profession figure out the spread of disease.

Priest said when flu season hits this data can be used to help figure out where it will hit the hardest, roughly how many people can be expected to get the flu and where flu vaccines should be sent.

Economically the census is important in helping businesses and industries figure out where to locate. They use this information to determine the income of an area, its population and the available labor force.

Census information also is used in drawing political boundary lines on the state and federal level. These figures can make the difference in having more or less representation in Washington.

In 1990, the population of Arkansas was determined to be 2.3 million. Priest said growth in the area of 300,000 is expected in this census.

However, it won't be enough to warrant another congressional district in the state.

The census will also give a better idea of the demographics in the state. Priest said there were 20,000 Hispanics counted in 1990, with a much larger number expected in the 2000 count.

Each person, she said, means about $700 per day for the state. Arkansas gets money from the federal government based on population, as do other states. In turn, cities and counties within the state receive funds based on their population.

While adults are worth $700 a head, she said, children are worth $1,200 per day each.

In 90, she said, about 26,000 children were not counted in the census, and this meant less money for the state's school districts, forcing the districts to stretch their dollars even further as all children must be given an equal education.

The Fourth Congressional District in Arkansas lost an estimated $67,742,940 by being undercounted in 1990 by 10,126.

In Clark County, the undercount meant the region lost $2.9 million as 435 people were not counted.

Part of the reason for the undercount, Priest said, is only 65 percent of the people returned their census in 90 statewide, while only 66 percent filled them out on the national level.

At this time, the Census Bureau is advertising nationally to get the message out to fill out the forms.

Allen Green, with the Little Rock census bureau office, said the census forms should be arriving in people's mail by the end of March.

About 18 months ago, he said, people with cities and counties went around preparing a list of addresses. These addresses were compared to lists on hand in mayor's and county judges' offices to be sure they were accurate.

This census count, he said, cannot be challenged as the one in 1990 was. Once it's completed, the figures will be final, unless a community or county wishes to foot the bill and challenge the count.

The lists of addresses have been sent to Washington, D.C. where the forms will be mailed out.

The Census Bureau, Green said, is address driven. The forms will only bear addresses, not the names of those who live there.

Once the forms arrive they need to be filled out by the head of the household and sent back.

Mara Yancey, with Priest's office, said those filling out the forms don't have to be legal residents of the US. The way the census is set up is so it can count every person in the US at the time it's done.

There will be two different census forms mailed by the federal government. One is a short form with about seven questions, while the other is longer and more detailed.

However, the information given when answering the census is kept confidential for 72 years.

Once the forms have been sent out, there will be a sort of grace period to see how many are returned.

Then, after April 11, people hired by the bureau will go door-to-door to gather the information.

Forms will be sent where people live, Green said. College students will get theirs in dorms. Inmates won't be forgotten and will be counted wherever they're incarcerated, and the military will do its own.

"The census is a snapshot in time," Priest said. "Where you are when they come is where you're counted."