Census- Nastacio

On April 1, 2010 I bought the Baltimore Sun and found out that the city census returns were currently at 45 percent. With only about 45% of households in Baltimore mailing back their census forms, this is the lowest total for any state jurisdiction. The city has tried just about every way possbile to persuade people to turn in their forms; even firefighters and emergency responders are being asked to encourage residents during calls to hand in their census forms. Workers in the state's Department of Human Resources are helping by working at one the city's eight centers to help people fill out questionnaires as well as leave voice mails messages in order to reach about 50,000 residents. However, those who are leading the city's census efforts are saying that they are pleased with Baltimore's standing because last year the city was at the body and now Baltimore is in the middle, even ahead of Philly.

However, according to the Census Bureau a new way of calculating will yield higher response rates. This is because the new rate will only include the percentage of forms mailed back by households who received questionnaires in order to account for the high number of foreclosed homes. Baltimore officials have identified three major groups to focus on improving response rates, including residents who are economically disadvantaged, single and move a lot, non-English speakers. That brings up the question of how they decide who to focus on and how they intend to make these three groups of people fill out and send in their census?