Census Counts 90% of U.S. Households

Recovering from a dismal start, the 1990 census has now managed to count nine out of 10 households in the United States, officials reported Thursday. The count nonetheless remains behind schedule.

Just six weeks ago, only 63% of U.S. households had completed and returned census forms, and many politicians were warning that the $2.5-billion decennial head count was in danger of succumbing to a combination of public apathy and bureaucratic ineptitude.

Since then, 28 million households have been visited by a street army of more than 200,000 census takers. The door-to-door effort was financed in part by an emergency $110 million appropriation by Congress. Turning around the census hasn’t been easy.

“We’ve had a ton of accident reports, dog bites, people pushed off porches, glasses stomped on,” said John Reeder, director of the Census Bureau’s operations in Southern California. “It’s been slow but we are making progress.”

Even with 91% of the households now counted, the census nonetheless is running late, and congressional overseers remain concerned that the delays could affect the quality of the census. As extra time is spent on each phase of the census, there is less time available for a series of quality-control reviews designed to weed out duplication and catch any omissions.

The Census Bureau announced this week that it will extend its door-to-door campaign beyond a deadline set for this week and keep many operations, including some in Los Angeles, running for the rest of the month. The Census Bureau also announced that, to improve productivity and attract more census takers, it was going to raise hourly wages for its corps of counters.

“It is still quite alarming in terms of how slow it is going,” said an aide to the congressional census oversight subcommittee. “The door-to-door work was supposed to be done yesterday, and some cities, like Boston, still haven’t counted 30% of their households. That’s dire.”

The chairman of the House subcommittee, Ohio Democrat Thomas C. Sawyer, is scheduled to meet with city and census officials in Los Angeles today.

Terriann Lowenthal, the subcommittee’s staff director, said Thursday that Sawyer’s chief concern was that the Census Bureau would not have enough time to properly conduct its planned post enumeration survey in which 150,000 households are revisited, beginning in July.

The post enumeration survey is at the heart of a legal controversy that has been dogging the census for two years. At issue is whether the survey is used simply to correct any errors discovered among the 150,000 homes revisited, or whether the census bureau should adjust its nationwide count based on the results of the 150,000 sample.

The debate over the survey has partisan overtones. Urban Democrats believe that the survey, if it is used to adjust the census nationwide, will lead to a larger and more accurate estimate of city dwellers--especially of poor people, minorities and immigrants who in previous counts were missed in greater numbers than other population groups.

The city of Los Angeles and the state of California are among several plaintiffs in a lawsuit that would compel the Census Bureau to use the post enumeration survey to adjust the 1990 Census.

L.A. officials expect a federal judge in New York to rule on the matter within the next few days.

Mike Weiler, an assistant regional census manager based in Los Angeles, said census takers in the Southland can expect increases of $1.50 an hour, raising the pay rate of many workers from $7.50 to $9.

The count in Los Angeles and many of the nation’s largest cities is lagging behind the national completion rate. In Los Angeles, the Census Bureau reports that 83% of all households have been counted, although the tally in some parts of the city is much lower. In Hollywood, for example, only 70% of households have been counted.

“Where we have had problems, it’s been due to staffing,” Weiler said. “We had more part-time staff than we anticipated and, consequently, the number of hours they put in was much lower.”

In Los Angeles overall, the census is making more progress than in New York City, where 74% of households have been counted. Among big cities, Boston has the worst showing to date, with a 72% completion rate, while Dallas with 92% of its households counted has the best record. Among states, California ranks fourth from last with 84% of its households tallied. South Carolina is at the bottom with 81%. Almost 99% of all of Idaho’s households have been counted, putting it first among states.

Once the door-to-work is done, the Census Bureau will begin several follow-up activities, including the post enumeration survey. Using newspapers, community groups and grocery stores, the Census Bureau plans to distribute mini-census questionnaires for people to fill out who were not previously counted. Asking for little more than age, race, sex and marital status, the forms seek much less information than the standard census questionnaires.

The census bureau also plans to revisit all addresses listed as vacant or non-existent during the first round of census taking. And, in September, it will allow city and county officials throughout the country to check the accuracy of current population counts.

By Dec. 31, the nationwide census count is supposed to be presented to President Bush. In April of next year, more detailed counts are to be made available to state legislatures for redistricting purposes.