Every day as part of his update press conference, Governor Andy Beshear tells us we need to complete our census form. He talks about doing pretty well at it, but says we need to do better.
Boy do we ever.
After reading a story in the Daily Yonder about rural census completion rates being so bad, we decided to pull the data for Kentucky and just see how bad we are. Which counties are above the national average of 46.7% completed (which is still abysmal), and which are below? And, are they rural or urban counties?
Here’s the data, broken out by two factors: rural/urban, and above/below. Check it out.
The light-colored counties are below the national average, while the dark-colored counties are above the national average. Here’s the breakout:
- 29 urban counties above 46.7% completion
- 6 urban counties below that
- 34 rural counties above
- 51 rural counties below (!!)
And, for those who like contests for best and worst:
- Best urban county – Oldham County at 60.6% completed
- Worst urban county – Edmonson County at 37.2%
- Best rural county – Washington County at 56.5%
- Worst rural county – Owsley County at 8.9%
Folks, for a state that depends heavily on federal assistance for so many programs, these are just horrible numbers. If you have an internet connection of almost any kind, it only takes about 15 minutes to complete your census form online. Just go to 2020Census.gov and fill it out, either online or by phone.
C’mon, Kentucky, we can do better than 47%. We can do better than 60%. We can even do better than 80%. Let’s get after it – remind each other via Facebook and Twitter and instant message and smoke signals and carrier pigeon and whatever means it takes –
Fill out your census already!
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