news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Ten years ago, the U.S. Census missed an estimated 110,980 people in North Carolina, costing the state millions in funding.

Local officials want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Committees in Greensboro and High Point, which are working with the Census Bureau, are seeking help to target about a dozen areas in the two cities that had low response rates in 2000 .

As a whole, Guilford County saw 72 percent of its residents who received the 2000 questionnaire return it, Census Bureau records show. Guilford matched the national rate and surpassed the state’s 66 percent rate.

But in some parts of the county, particularly within the two cities, communities posted response rates as low as 51 percent .

So this time around, committees will be formed to plan events, such as church potluck dinners and neighborhood block parties, to encourage residents in those areas to fill out and return their census forms. The push is part of the Census Bureau’s national “March to the Mailbox” initiative.

“Everybody counts,” said Karen Markovics , a comprehensive planner with Greensboro who is handling the city’s outreach for the census.

“If we want to get an accurate portrait of Greensboro, we need everyone to count,” she said. “If we want to get our fair share of federal money, we definitely need everybody to count.”

About 150 people are needed to volunteer to help set up events in Greensboro, she said. There will be a meeting Thursday at the Central Library on how to plan the events, which will occur April 10 .

In High Point, information was sent to community groups in low-response areas encouraging them to hold events, said Tony Lowe , co-chair of the Complete Count Committee for High Point.

Residents should expect to see census forms in their mailboxes next week. The 2010 Census is a shorter survey than in the past, asking basic questions such as name, sex, age, race, and housing tenure. It is expected to take less than 10 minutes to complete.

By law, individual information collected for the census remains private. The government uses the aggregated data to funnel money to programs and monitor the effectiveness of some programs.

But if past behavior is any indicator, then millions of forms won’t be returned. In such cases, the Census Bureau sends out census takers to collect the information in person. That takes place from late April to July.

Historically, African Americans, immigrants, children, the elderly, college students and the homeless have been undercounted in the census.

The 2000 census counted more than 281 million people, but it missed an estimated 3.4 million , according to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board.

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com