City targets high-risk census groups
November 12, 2009
by Jake Harris
PEORIA, Ariz. – The City of Peoria is developing programs to promote the 2010 federal census and is targeting demographics who have a high risk of not returning the mandatory survey, the city said.
The 10-question form should begin arriving in mailboxes in as early as April or March and will be one of the quickest and most simple surveys given since the first US census in 1790, according to a City of Peoria press release.
If a mandatory census questionnaire is not filled out and returned, census workers may visit residents' homes as many as six times or ask neighbors for information on the household.
"Every single street address in Peoria will get a survey," said City of Peoria census spokeswoman Sherine Zaya. "That's where we get our demographical information, [and discover] where development can potentially happen and where populations reside within our borders."
Zaya said a major issue for the census takers is concerns among community members about the privacy of information given in response to the survey. To combat this, the City Council has appointed a 12-citizen Complete Count Committee to promote the importance and confidentiality of the survey.
This grassroots movement targets the "hard-to-reach population," she said. This group is constituted by those citizens who feel "like their privacy or confidentiality [of the survey] is in question," she said.
This group is mostly made up of minorities, including immigrants and senior citizens, both of which are growing demographics.
Peoria's 2008 Hispanic population doubled from 2000 to 2008 and composed 22.4 percent of Peoria's general population, or 33,317 residents, and is projected to rise more than 32 percent by 2013, according to city and federal census statistics.
From 2000 to 2008, residents age 65 and older increased 24 percent, from 15,652 to 19,912, according to federal and city statistics.
The information gathered from the census helps both the city and the federal government allocate funds for government programs and potentially re-draw election districts based on population and demographic information. But Zaya said the census must be as accurate as possible to effectively do that.
The aim of the committee is to get residents to feel comfortable responding to the survey without feeling like they are compromising their privacy, she said.
"Our goal is to ensure that we get as high a response as possible," she said.