With 2010 census complete, analysis begins

On Tuesday morning, as the official 2010 census figures were released, Dennis Johnson and head counters everywhere could sigh in relief. The massive data-collection campaign years in the making had come to an end.

"The war is over, so to speak," said Johnson, director of the U.S. Census Bureau's Kansas City Regional Office.

The analysis is just beginning, however. Tuesday marked the release of U.S. and state population figures and the consequent setting of congressional seats. Missouri, like several other states, learned it would lose a seat because of slower population growth over the past decade.

In the weeks ahead, in advance of February and March data distribution, Census Bureau number crunchers will break down the census at the state, county, municipality, even city block level. Those population figures will determine redistricting, a process that ultimately determines representation on state legislatures, county boards and city councils. Census figures are used to distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds.

The campaign to count every American was costly, but it pumped billions of dollars into a slumping economy. From start to finish, the 2010 census cost the bureau more than $12.7 billion, Johnson said. The budget included $200 million to $300 million in marketing and promotion costs, from setting up Web pages to Dora the Explorer-based advertising campaigns and Super Bowl commercials.

More than 600,000 people were employed in the count during the campaign's peak in late spring and early summer. The Kansas City region, covering six states, employed 60,000 people, many of them as temporary enumerators. About 2,200 census workers were on the payroll in Southeast Missouri, as many as 1,000 of those employed at the Cape Girardeau office. Average pay in the region, Johnson said, was about $10 an hour, with employees working 25 hours per week over a four-week period. Johnson said conservative estimates are that the census jobs boosted the Southeast Missouri economy by $1.5 million.

Johnson said the recession had a silver lining for the Census Bureau.

"We had a wonderful pool of workers in the Midwest who were available to work, and I feel confident they knew what they were doing and had vested interest in the census," he said, adding that he is confident in the region's count.

Cape Girardeau County had a 77 percent census participation rate, besting the 74 percent rate in Missouri and the U.S. According to the Census Bureau, 82 percent of Jackson's residents participated in the count, compared to 75 percent in Cape Girardeau and Scott City.

U.S. participation held steady between the 2000 and 2010 population counts. Johnson said many Americans see the census as less of a civic responsibility than they have in the past, and more Americans are questioning the government's intentions.

"It is taking more effort, more resources to achieve the same rates or slightly lower rates than we did 10, 20, 30 years ago," Johnson said. "That's why many people were very surprised that we were able to achieve the participation rate we did."

mkittle@semissourian.com

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