Census response improves

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 | 10 a.m.

Nevada was one of five states that improved its response rate in the 2000 Census over 1990 by at least 5 percentage points, the Census Bureau reported today.

Nevada increased its response rates by exactly 5 points, from 61 percent to 66 percent, the fourth best increase in the country. Nevada was still a percentage below the national average of 67 percent. The response rate is a count of households that mailed back the questionnaire.

The mail-in is important to the bureau because it cuts the amount of time and number of people needed to do door-to-door information gathering in the once-a-decade census count.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the improved response rates were a good start.

"We've improved a lot in the last 10 years, but there is always room for improvement," she said.

The census numbers are important for doling out federal tax dollars, Berkley noted.

"Funding for social services, like education and health care, is based on population," she said. "We have the fastest growing region in the country. That means the state is always playing catch-up with the rate of growth.

"By improving our response rates, we've increased our piece of that pie."

Other states that improved the mail-in rates by at least 5 percent were California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Wyoming.

The final results from the census should be released in December.