With all that has happened so far this year it might be easy to forget one important event happening during the start of the new decade: the U.S. Census.

Guthrie County is still lagging behind all of its surrounding counties for the self-response rate, with a total of 57.8% of its residents that have completed the census form, compared to the final tally of a 65.9% in 2010. Iowa Data Center Coordinator and 2020 Census Complete Count Committee Member Gary Krob says the results of this once-a-decade population count will determine the number of seats Iowa has in the U.S. House of Representatives and are also used to draw congressional and state legislative districts, “But on top of that there’s also a big financial component to the census numbers. In fiscal year 2016 Iowa received $8.7 billion just in that year in federal funding based on population. And in our state we base the population on the decennial count so what the population is in 2020 will be how funding is defined for us through 2029. It won’t be reallocated or changed until the next decennial census. So it’s really important for our state that we get this right, that we get everyone counted once and only once and in the right spot.”

Krob encourages residents who haven’t yet completed their census form to do so before the census bureau begins following up door-to-door with households that haven’t responded beginning next month. For a link to complete the form online, visit here.