Lauren Ryder, a 19-year-old Merrimack College student from Long Island, N.Y., filled out the 2010 federal census form because "it seemed important at the time."
Anne Pearson, an elder services worker from Lawrence, filled out the form because her employer encouraged participation, knowing that federal aid is tied to accurate census counts.
Scott Clark, an Andover resident, said he filled out the form because he was impressed by a pre-survey that was sent out by the U.S. Census Bureau.
"I'm in the printing industry," he said. "There's all sorts of data out there that shows you get a higher rate of return if you send out a pre-mailing."
Whatever their reasons, millions of people across the country, and thousands around the Merrimack Valley, have mailed in their 2010 census forms, leading to a response rate of about 72 percent nationwide — matching the return rate of the 2000 census. Locally, the numbers are a little more or a little less, depending on where you live.
In Andover, 81 percent of the residents have returned their forms, while in Lawrence, there's a 59 percent return rate.
Starting this weekend and running through June, census workers, known as "enumerators," will take to the neighborhoods where people have failed to return the forms, going door-to-door and asking people the same questions that were on the form.
In Massachusetts, nearly 15,000 people are being paid around $20-an-hour to collect data about who is living where.
Anyone who hadn't mailed in their form by April 16 will likely be visited by a census taker. Zoi Kalaitzidis, assistant regional census manager in Boston, explained that census workers go to homes when they believe someone will be there — nights and weekends. They will make three trips to the house, and if they still can't get the data they need, they will seek the information from other sources, such as City Hall records or neighbors.
"We will get the data for every address we have in our address lists," she said. "For the people who mailed in their forms, we offer a huge thank you."
For the 28 percent who haven't, however, they are costing themselves — the U.S. taxpayer — big bucks. Every percentage point increase in response rate saves $85 million in follow-up costs, she said, whereas when people mail back their census forms, it only costs the government the price of a stamp.
The 2010 census is a count of everyone living in the United States and is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
Census data are used to allocate congressional seats to states; to distribute more than $400 billion in federal money to local, state, and tribal governments annually; and to inform planning for local programs and projects such as social services and infrastructure improvements.
That's one reason that Cheryl Costello, a North Andover mom, decided she should fill it out and send it back.
"It's got a lot of benefits," she said. "It helps figure out the population and helps fund road improvements. People don't realize the importance of it."
Plus, she said, her children nagged her to fill it out.
"They said it's important to their future," she said, noting that her 16-year-old daughter had a unit on the census at her school, Presentation of Mary Academy in Methuen.
Ryder said Merrimack College urged all the students to fill it out, and most everyone she knows did it. At home, her parents omitted her from their census form since the census is basically a snapshot in time of who is living where.
"They handed them out to us," she said of the college. "I didn't even know what it was at first."
Clark, of Andover, said he's always filled out the census, and knows its importance.
"It's used for everything from setting legislative seats to allocation of funds," he said.
That's why a full count of everyone in the country is so important, Kalaitzidis said.
People who are unable to communicate with a census worker because of language barriers will be shown a card displaying 50 languages. Once that resident's language is established, a census worker who knows that language will return to do the survey.
Further, she said, "we hire people who are indigenous to the area. It's a priority for us to hire people who speak the languages of people in those communities."
It's a federal offense not to fill out the form or to respond to census workers, but the Census Bureau never enforces the $5,000 fine that the law allows it to levy.
"We are not a law enforcement agency," she said. "Our job is to collect the data."
Today, the director of the Census Bureau will hold a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to announce the final results of the mail-in survey and the start of the next phase of the census: door-to-door data collection.
People who mailed the census form in after the April 16 deadline will still get a visit from a census worker and will still be required to go through the questionnaire.
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Census mail-in return rate information
Based on percentage of households in each community that returned forms as of April 27.
Community% response rate 2000% response rate 2010
Haverhill7466
Methuen7871
Lawrence5959
Andover8381
North Andover8177
Boxford8583
Groveland8279
Merrimac8180
Amesbury7975
Dracut8275
State-by-state and national mail-in response rate
Massachusetts7472
N.H.7170
Maine6566
Vermont6567
R.I.7071
Conn.7574
National7272
Source: 2010.census.gov
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