Census Numbers Show Marylanders Stepping Up

Prince George’s County participation rate so far stays steady at 71 percent.

Maryland’s participation rate in the 2010 Census was 74 percent, which matched the state’s rate in the 2000 count of population, according to the U. S. Census Bureau’s report last week.

Maryland’s rate is higher than the national rate of 72 percent and tied for 15th place among U.S. states. The participation rate is the percentage of the census forms, or questionnaires, sent to households that have been mailed back to the Census Bureau.

Prince George’s County had a mail-back rate of 71 percent, which is the same as 2000. Baltimore City exceeded its 2000 rate of 60 percent, achieving 66 percent. That was the largest improvement recorded in the country compared to the 2000 Census by a city with more than 500,000 residents. Baltimore City is joined by 15 Maryland counties that matched or exceeded their 2000 participation rate, including Garrett County which had the highest improvement of 11 percentage points.

The Baltimore Data Capture Center in Essex, processed about 40 percent of the nation’s questionnaires as one of three facilities that processed census forms in the U.S. “Hearing that Maryland has exceeded its 2000 mail back in this first phase of Census 2010 is great news but comes as no surprise to me,” said Gov. Martin O’Malley. “We have been stressing all year that an undercount could cost us federal revenue over the next decade. Folks from all of Maryland’s communities rolled up their sleeves and worked together to tell their neighbors how important this census was. Our partners all across the state, the local complete count committees and my Census 2010 State Outreach Team all did their part to make this our best count ever.” O’Malley launched a yearlong comprehensive outreach campaign over a year ago, with the theme “The Success of the Census—It’s In Our Hands, Maryland,” to capture the grassroots energy of numerous local and statewide organizations and committees.



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