Census Counted 99.98 Percent of Homes Nationwide

The Census Bureau managed to reach 99.98% of all homes in the country despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the decision to end the count early, officials announced on Monday.

“The 2020 census faced challenges like no other decennial census in living memory,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr., in a statement. “Achieving these metrics in the face of severe weather events and a global pandemic is a testament to the determination and ingenuity of the hundreds of thousands of dedicated women and men who worked on the 2020 census.”

The count, which was set to end in September, was extended through October until the Supreme Court ruled in the Trump Administration’s favor and allowed it to end early.

Census officials noted that every state except for Louisiana had 99.9% of its homes counted.

“America stepped up and answered the call: shape your future by responding to the 2020 Census,” Dr. Steven Dillingham, Director of the Census Bureau, said in a statement. “Generally, better data comes from self-response, but after a decade of global decline in census and survey participation along with the challenges presented to communities by COVID-19, we had not expected to exceed the 2010 self-response rate. That we did is a testament to the American people, our nearly 400,000 national and community partners, and very importantly our staff.”

Data collection for the 2020 U.S. Census ended on October 15, 2020, though some paper responses are still arriving.

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