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Beaufort County’s census office opened in fall in advance of the 2010 census, and organizers are hoping to improve on 2000’s abysmal local response rate.
The office, which opened in October and serves Beaufort, Jasper, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Hampton, Orangeburg and Colleton counties, will ultimately employ 1,200 people to follow up on the census questionnaires sent to residents’ homes. But the office is hoping to rally residents to return more surveys than in 2000, when the state ranked second to last behind Alaska in the number of surveys returned, said Carl Statham, Beaufort census office manager.
The surveys are sent to all county residents in mid-March for return in April, he said. If they are not returned, the office sends another questionnaire to the address and then follows up with an in-person visit — the largest part of the census operation, he said. The questions are simple and non-intrusive and the information gathered is secure, he said.
Statham said participating in the census is important because it can affect congressional districts and the size of the region’s representation in Congress.
