With about two weeks left to complete the Census, North Dakota’s response rate has reached nearly 92.8 percent.
"64.5% of that is the self-response component," said North Dakota Census Office state director Kevin Iverson. "An additional 28.3% is enumerator collected data."
Iverson said where people have not self-responded, people are going door-to-door. He said North Dakota's response is better than the national average. And Iverson attributes that to a head-start.
"We started July 30, where most of the country did not start until August 11," Iverson said. "That two week heads-up really aided us a great deal."
Iverson is encouraging those who have not been contacted door-to-door to self respond.
"Some people are bothered by someone coming to the door," Iverson said. "If you don't answer the door, the enumerators will gather the information somehow, and that's generally by going to neighbors' doors and asking about you."
Iverson said your neighbors don't know about your household as well as you do, so it's certainly better if you respond, and preferably self-respond.
"People who self-respond normally respond more accurately," Iverson said.
Iverson says if North Dakotans don’t respond by the end of September, when census data collection is scheduled to end, it could mean a loss of substantial federal dollars for North Dakota.
"About 320 different federal programs are driven by the census count," Iverson said. "Even missing one person has an economic impact on us for the next decade."
