2020 Census Faces Challenges in Rural America

"The 2020 Census will have ramifications for every person in the United States, urban and rural residents alike.1  Interest in the Census is growing2 and the Census Bureau’s plans are becoming more concrete,3 but little has been written about the special challenges that will make some rural areas and populations difficult to enumerate accurately.

This brief identifies rural areas where special outreach and operations will be needed to get a complete and accurate count. It also addresses key Census-related issues that will be important for rural leaders to monitor between now and April 1, 2020

Hard-to-Count Places and Populations in Rural America
The Census is intended to be a complete count of everyone in the country, but people are always missed, that is, undercounted, and people in some places and groups are more likely to be missed than others. Groups most likely to be missed are called hard-to-count (HTC) populations, and places most likely to be missed are called hard-to-count areas.
Hard-to-Count Characteristics in Urban and Rural Areas
The Census Bureau has identified twelve characteristics associated with low mail response rates and census undercounts.⁴  Ten of these are shown in Table 1, along with percentages for urban and rural areas based on the Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey.⁵ A higher value in Table 1 indicates that the population is more difficult to count..."
2020 Census and Rural America

via: [Willaim O'Hare. University of New Hampshire, Carsey School of Public Policy]