NC’s census count is lagging badly. An undercount could cost the state billions.

North Carolina needs to get serious about getting counted.

The U.S. Census Bureau began soliciting responses to the 2020 census on April 1, but four months later only 59 percent of North Carolina households have responded compared to 63 percent nationally, a response level that puts North Carolina behind at least 30 other states. North Carolina is even about 5 percent behind its own response rate in the 2010 census.

The lagging count could carry a heavy cost for North Carolina, the nation’s ninth largest state. The census numbers guide how much funding North Carolina receives for many federal programs., including Medicaid, Head Start, school lunches, Pell grants, food stamps and food stamps.

“It’s always of critical importance that the census be as accurate as possible for funding,” said Rebecca Tippett, director of Carolina Demography at the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. “When those numbers are not accurate, we risk that communities are not fully represented and they don’t receive their fair share of funds.”

With more than 4 million North Carolina residents who have not been counted, the state is at risk of losing $7.4 billion annually in federal funding, according to Bob Coats, the governor’s census liaison in the Office of State Budget and Management

The census is yet another crucial operation stymied by the pandemic, but this one can’t recover after a vaccine arrives. The 2020 count will determine the allocation of federal funds, guide new state legislative and congressional district lines and shape government and business decisions for the next decade..

The Census Bureau has encouraged online responses and its website has held up well, but that push has not been enough to offset the pandemic’s drag. In North Carolina, the online option is also limited by a lack of internet access in rural areas. For instance, Graham County in far western North Carolina has an internet response rate of 17 percent. In Wake County it’s 63 percent.

Starting this week, census workers will take to the field and knock on the doors of non-responding households. That task has become even more urgent now that the Trump administration decided to end the count on Sept. 30, a month earlier than expected. That change will ensure that more hard-to-reach people – such as the transient poor and undocumented immigrants – will go uncounted.

While the pandemic has greatly complicated the census – and likely will compromise its accuracy – the Republican-led General Assembly added to the difficulty. Lawmakers rejected both requests from Gov. Roy Cooper – first for $1.5 million and then even half that – to support a state campaign promoting the census.

A non-profit group, NC Counts Coalition, is coordinating a statewide effort to increase the state’s census response. Stacey Carless, the group’s executive director, said the coalition has spent about $2.5 million, much of it directed at improving the census response in rural areas and historically undercounted groups, people of color and young children.

Census Bureau workers, non-profits and local governments will push hard to increase North Carolina’s response rate. But given how far behind the state is now and the Trump administration’s unwillingness to give the counting more time during a pandemic, it will be hard to move the needle.

The state, local governments, businesses, churches and citizens should join in a push to have more of North Carolina’s isolated rural residents, urban poor, immigrants and people of color counted in the next two months, even if some in Washington would rather that they not be.

The census will paint a portrait of North Carolina for the next 10 years. It should be a true one.

To respond to the U.S. Census, visit 2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020