Hawaii has another subpar response to the census, but officials claim 99.9% counted

The U.S. Census wrapped up its field operations last week with Hawaii coming in 37th when it comes to the percent of people who responded on their own.

But, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hawaii finished tied for first — with 48 other states — for the overall number of households counted: 99.9%.

Census Bureau officials said Wednesday that the number crunching has now begun with the aim of producing results by the end of the year.

In a news conference, Census Bureau officials said they did better than they expected after the coronavirus pandemic made their jobs exponentially more difficult.

In addition to COVID-19, the effort was also clouded by contentious litigation, including one suit that was joined by the state of Hawaii seeking to extend the census timeline for a more accurate count.

The 2020 census field campaign was expected to go until the end of this month, but the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to cut the census off on Oct. 15.

Critics have questioned whether a truncated count and shortened processing deadline will allow for accurate results.

But senior Census Bureau officials said Wednesday that they aren’t necessarily wedded to the administration’s deadline.

“We did not say we were going to be able to meet the December 31st deadline,” Associate Director Al Fontenot said. “That provides us with the flexibility if we encounter unexpected challenges.”

The data compiled in the census every 10 years is used to determine the number of seats each state holds in the U.S. House of Representatives and inform how state, local and federal lawmakers will allocate billions of dollars in federal funds to states and counties every year for the next decade.

Over the past year Hawaii politicians and officials urged Hawaii residents to participate, saying the state must get its fair share of federal funds for programs essential to the health, education and economic well-being of the state’s population.

According to preliminary data, 63.1% of Hawaii households responded to the census on their own either online, by phone or through the mail. Such responses are considered the most accurate data.

The rest were “counted” by census field workers who either examined records, conducted direct interviews in the field or asked neighbors, landlords or property managers about who was living at an address.

Hawaii’s response rate fell short of the national average of 67%, which was book-ended by Minnesota’s 75.1% and Alaska’s 54.7%.

Eugene Tian, head of the state’s Research and Economic Analysis Division, said Hawaii’s self-response performance in 2020 is similar to what was seen in previous censuses. In 1990, he said, the self-response rate was 62%. In 2000, it was 60%, and in 2010, it was 64.1%.

Tian cautioned that the final Hawaii participation rate is likely to be higher, because right now the data includes vacant housing units in the pool of total households. The final rate will exclude vacant units.

“Because Hawaii’s vacancy rate (15.6%) is higher than the national average (12.6%), Hawaii’s final participation may climb a bit relative to other states,” Tian said in an email.

The City and County of Honolulu performed better than the state as a whole at 68.9%, but it ranked 27th out of 62 counties with populations from 900,000 to 1,000,000.

Both Kauai (54.2%) and Maui (53.3%) counties exceeded their self-response rates from 2010, while Hawaii (49.7%) and Honolulu counties did not.

The Census Bureau this year spent significantly more funds to reach out to Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, groups that are considered historically under-counted.

John Aeto, founder of the Kalaimoku Group, a Native Hawaiian-owned marketing agency hired by the Census Bureau to reach out to the groups, said response rates by race or ethnicity are not available yet.

But Aeto estimated that at least 95% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were reached — an increase over previous decade counts — despite the limitations brought on by the pandemic.

Aeto said his troops had planned to reach out to Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders on the mainland through staged events, but they had to be scrapped due to COVID-19. Instead, they were reached via digital means.