Starting Thursday, people will get invitations in the mail to participate in the U.S. Census.
The Constitution mandates a census every 10 years to count every person living in the U.S., regardless of citizenship status, race or age. This week, Arizona announced an initiative to make sure babies and young children are counted.
“For every one of these babies it means $3,000 per year for federally funded programs for each of ten years,” said Debbie Johnson, chair of Arizona Complete Count Committee.
The Governor’s Office says the state receives $2,959 in federal funding for each person counted in Arizona. The state lists the following population where response rates are generally lower:
- seniors
- rural areas
- college students
- children under 5
- faith-based communities
- tribal communities
- LGBTQ
Based on an analysis of funding through 55 federal programs, Andrew Reamer of George Washington University found Arizona received $20,550,087,125 in 2016 based on data from the 2010 census. That averages $3,214.96 per resident.
The largest sources of federal funding in Arizona based on Reamer’s “Counting for Dollars 2020” analysis, were Medicaid at $8.5 billion and the federal student loan program at $3.5 billion.
“We know that an undercount of just 1% of Arizona’s population would represent the loss of $62 million per year, every year for a decade,” Gov. Doug Ducey said during a news conference to announce a partnership with Banner Health.
Banner will lead an awareness campaign with new parents delivering in their hospital system and distribute 1,000 onesies across Arizona. A onesie is a one-piece close-fitting garment designed for newborns.
Census data are also used to calculate seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Thanks to population growth, Arizona is expected to gain one congressional seat.
