Census looks for a few people to help get an accurate count

MOSES LAKE — The U.S. Census Bureau is looking for temporary census takers to help get a good count of everyone living in Grant County.

Census takers would follow up at addresses that failed to return the census questionnaire, which is expected to start going out to households in mid-March, a Census press release said.

According to Toby Nelson, a Census spokesman based in Seattle, the Census gets back around three out of every four questionnaires it mails out nationally. While the response rate is slightly higher in Washington, the Grant County response rate is lower — around 69 percent — and is a much lower 34 percent in the south county region that includes Mattawa and Royal City.

The south county skews young, Nelson explained, with a median age of around 24. Nearly half of all south county residents speak little or no English, he added.

That makes southern Grant County “one of Washington’s most hard to count areas,” Nelson said.

To work for the Census, applicants must be at least 18 years old, U.S. citizens, and able to pass an FBI background check, Nelson said. Ability to speak Spanish would be a plus. Census enumerators — the people who follow up — are paid $16 per hour, Nelson said.

Interviews will begin in late January, and the census takers are expected to begin covering the county in early May, according to a Census Bureau press release.

According to maps provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, Grant County is divided up in 16 census tracts — counting areas — while Adams County is divided up into five census tracts.

The U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to conduct a census every 10 years, with the final count used to adjust congressional districts and determine where federal money should be spent.

Nelson said the number of enumerators the bureau is looking to hire would be dictated by the rate of response to the mailed questionnaires, but he expected that “several hundred” would be hired in the entire Columbia Basin.

For more information on Census jobs, check out the bureau’s website, 2020census.gov/jobs, or call 1-855-JOB-2020.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.