Delaware County Forms Complete Count Committee

Committee formed to encourage participation in the 2020 Census

Delaware County Council recently announced the appointment of Michael Ranck as the Chairman of the Delaware County Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census. Ranck, who serves as CEO of the Community YMCA of Eastern Delaware County was tasked with forming a committee that will develop, make recommendations and assist in the administration of a census outreach strategy to encourage full participation in the 2020 federal census.

The Delaware County Complete Count Committee met on Oct. 29 to discuss a 2020 Census awareness campaign based upon their knowledge of the local community. The volunteer committee is comprised of government and community leaders from education, business, health care, religious and other community organizations. Members are working to develop and implement an awareness campaign to encourage participation in the 2020 Census.

“The goal of the Delaware County Complete Count Committee is to maximize Delaware County’s participation in the 2020 Census and encourage everyone to be counted,” said Michael Ranck, Chair of the Delaware County Complete Count Committee. “Ensuring that everyone is counted in the 2020 Census is crucial to securing federal funding for our county. Funding for resources such as roads, hospitals, and schools is distributed to local communities based on census data.”

The 2020 Census provides an opportunity for everyone to be counted. State, and local governments; community-based organizations; faith-based groups; schools; businesses; the media; and others play a key role in developing partners to educate and motivate people to participate in the 2020 Census. When community members are informed, they are more likely to respond to the census.

Complete Count Committees have been formed throughout the United States and are working to conduct outreach to all communities, with a focus on those which had a low response rate during the last census. Those areas may include lower-income populations, immigrants or areas with a significant transient population, such as college students. The committee will work to educate the community about the importance of the Census and emphasize the confidentiality of the responses. By law, the Census Bureau must keep all responses confidential and is not permitted to share answers with any other government agency.

Approximately 565,000 people currently live in Delaware County, according to 2018 census data. This grew from the 2010 census count of 558,979 residents in Delaware County. The County’s population is expected to increase 4 percent over the next 30 years.

Census Day is April 1, 2020. Every household will have the option to respond to a short survey online, by mail, or by phone.

More information on the 2020 Census can be found here: www.delcopa.gov/departments/census2020.html