Read on Twitter
"The census count affects everything from how many seats in the House of Representatives a state gets to how trillions of dollars in federal funds are distributed to communities across the country for the next 10 years" https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/9/25/21453207/what-is-2020-census-online-coronavirus-covid-deadline-ruling
"That money goes to things like Medicaid, roads, education, assistance for lower-income families, and environmental programs. Your life will be affected, one way or another, by the census results"
How does the American census compare to the Maltese census? This year we're preparing online management tools to launch a digital option and we're expecting a minimal 20% rate of self-response. Here we don't have an option of answering by phone or mailing in your census
Rather we're recruiting about 1,200 survey interviewers to engage in door-knocking enumeration. In the last census, the coverage rate was of 96.2%, with only 3.8% of data that was retrieved through other administrative records
The pandemic will also provide new challenges for in-person interviews, which will likely cause apprehension, delays and errors. Thus ideally the rate of online response is advertised as the safest, self-paced and more efficient option
Good census-taking can guide comprehensive policy-making which includes vulnerable communities and minorities, all the while keeping in mind the safety, well-being and potential of all citizens
