University Heights looks to be counted in 2020 Census

University Heights has a campaign underway to ensure that all of its residents will be counted in the 2020 U.S. Census.

Allocation of federal funds, grants and support to states, counties and communities is based on population totals and breakdowns by sex, age, race and other factors, as measured by the census.

University Heights will benefit the most when the census counts everyone living in the city. By responding to the census, residents help the city and school district get a fair share of the more than $675 billion per year in federal funds spent on schools, hospitals, roads and public works.

The city will promote its census campaign via its At Your Service newsletter, Mosaic magazine, and social media accounts. The campaign will encourage everyone to be counted, with an emphasis on hard-to-reach populations, such as college students, renters, young children, and new residents.

In 2020, University Heights plans to team up with Heights Libraries, Cleveland Heights, and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District to ensure an accurate count. 

A census aims to count the entire population of a country, at the location where each person lives. The 2020 U.S. Census will ask questions of people in homes and group living situations, including how many people live or stay in each home, and the gender, age and race of each person. The goal is to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place.

Census questionnaires will be mailed to all U.S. households next year. Each person is counted at the location where he or she sleeps most nights of the year, in order to account for people who have moved, college students, and those who travel frequently.

A second mailing will be sent if the first is not returned. If neither mailing is returned, a census worker will visit the address to gather data.

The collected information is kept completely confidential by the U.S. Census Bureau, and cannot be disclosed for 72 years.

The first census was recorded in 1790, and was undertaken due to the Constitutional requirement for a population count. Although the U.S. Census long played a role in the work of Congress, the permanent Census Bureau wasn’t created until 1902. The census became part of the Department of the Interior, then, the following year, the Department of Commerce and Labor, and, finally, the Department of Commerce, where it has remained.

From a simple head count in 1790, that only included measures of race, age and gender, to a decennial (every ten years) report that includes more than 200 different surveys, the census has changed over time in order to accurately and effectively measure the demographics of the American people.

Mike Cook

Mike Cook is the communications and civic engagement coordinator for University Heights.

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Volume 12, Issue 10, Posted 10:53 AM, 10.01.2019