LIHU‘E — Census workers on Kaua‘i and across the state will be putting on a lot of miles on shoes and vehicles, as in most parts of the state most households did not respond to mailed census forms before the April deadline.
So, beginning last Saturday, what a census press release called “nonresponse follow-up operations” (NRFU) launched across the state, with census workers doing door-to-door data-collection efforts.
On Kaua‘i, an estimated 14,600 households failed to return the mailed-out census forms last month. That’s nearly half of all homes on the island.
Statewide, around 200,000 households are targets of the door-to-door workers.
Nearly 2,700 census takers began statewide door-to-door canvassing Saturday, to collect information from approximately 200,000 households that did not return their census forms by mail.
In most cases, census workers will make initial visits during afternoons, early evenings and weekends.
Workers will identify themselves with a census ID badge that contains a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark. The census taker may also be carrying a bag with a census-bureau logo.
If asked, he or she will provide supervisor contact information and/or the local census office phone number for verification.
If census workers are unable to reach a household member in-person, they will also attempt contact by phone to conduct the interview with the household member.
If the household does not speak English, the census worker will have flash cards in 50 languages to identify the language of the household.
A follow-up visit by a census worker who speaks that language will result. The NRFU operations are scheduled to be completed by July 10. See 2010census.gov for more information.
