Nye County lags behind in responding to census

Nevada Census 2020 reported this week that response rates to the census in Nevada are trailing the rest of the nation, and rates in Nye County significantly trail the state overall.

Nevada’s self-response rate is 57.9%, compared to the U.S self-response rate, which is currently 58.7%. In Nye County, the response rate is 40.5%.

The top performing Nevada counties are Churchill (66%), Carson (63.2%) and Lyon (62%), while Henderson’s 68% response rate is tops among the state’s municipalities, followed by Fallon (67.7%) and Boulder City (66.1%).

On the other end of the scale, only 3.5% of residents in Esmeralda County have responded to the census. Other low-responding counties include Eurkea (12.2%) and Lincoln (12.1%), while Caliente (8.5%), Carlin (11.4%) and Wells (12.3%) are the lowest-responding municipalities.

Nevada Census 2020’s report stated completing the census can be done at home, either online at www.census.nv.gov, via phone at 844-330-2020 for English or 844-468-2020 for Spanish or by returning the hard copy that was mailed to each resident.

For every person counted, Nevada Census 2020 noted, the state stands to receive $2,000 each year in federal funding for 10 years, more than $67 billion over the next decade.

Programs that rely on census data to determine funding include Medicaid, health care centers, nutrition services for senior citizens, school breakfast programs, Head Start, Pell Grants, career and technical education grants, highway planning and construction money and rural water and waste systems money.