There’re only a few weeks left to fill out the 2020 Census and some southern Illinois counties are below the response rate from 2010.
Southern Seven Health Department covers around 65,00 residents that live in the bottom seven counties of Illinois.
At the beginning of September Johnson County was the only one with an increase of almost two percent, Hardin County was at a twenty-three percent decrease.
Outreach Coordinator Shawnna Rhine says they are feeling the effects of the lack of response in 2010, missing out on over twelve million dollars for the region.
“Thinking about how different thongs would be today if we had that 12.5 million to give us a little bit help with COVID, we can’t predict what’s going to happen over the next 10 years, the census is not for what’s going on now, it’s for what goes on over the next 10 years.”
Two of the biggest hurdles for the region is lack of connectivity to fill the form out online and census forms are not sent to PO boxes which are frequently used by the residents.
Southern Seven is holding census events for residents to get help filling out the census.
The first Census event is September 11th in Rosiclare at Bob's Food Mart from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The Next one is September 25th in Golconda at Golconda Food Mart from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
