Unalaska has low return rate for U.S. Census forms
Thursday, April 15 2010
Unalaska, AK – The national mail participation rate for the U.S. Census - which tells how many people have already turned in their information - is 67 percent. The rate for Alaska is 57 percent. For Unalaska, it's 39 percent, the 12th lowest rate in the state. The highest return rate for Alaska, 79 percent, is from Saxman City in southeast Alaska. The 2000 census said their population was 431.
Local census worker Dick Peck said Unalaska's low rate of return is likely based on the busy nature of the community.
"Well I think there are two reasons. Right when the forms were delivered, the last part of March, we were right in the middle of A' season and everyone was extremely busy. And when people work 10 to 12 to 14 hours a day they tend to put things like the census form literally on the back burner."
People need to return their forms by Friday. Peck said that if they don't, they could eventually be visited by a census worker.
"What will happen is an individual who will come around and personally collect the information on a door to door basis. We're hoping that everyone will finally sit down and fill out the forms and get them back prior to that because it will be very costly for an individual to go out and collect the information."
Each form that is left at each house's door has a bar code on the back that is associated with that particular physical address. If you lost that form you can fill out a generic form from the library. You can find out you physical address by calling the planning department at city hall. If the U.S. Census does not receive a form associated with that physical address then you will be contacted again.
People who live in bunkhouses were counted with a different method.
Peck said it's very important for the community to have an accurate census count. "I tell you what; it is the basis for the city and state and federal government. It's the basis by which we determine our voting districts and its basis that we distribute funds on a state level and a federal level to all the various areas."
