Dukes County ranks dead last in the state — by far — for responses to the 2020 census, according to a real-time response tracker on the U.S. Census Bureau website.
Faced with sharply reduced federal funding for outreach efforts, Island leaders and organizations on Martha’s Vineyard are scrambling to prepare for the 2020 census.
If it seems the inventory of hair color products on Island drugstore and supermarket shelves is growing larger every year - well, it probably is. New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week shows that gray hair is the increasingly predominant theme in Dukes County, and for that matter all over Massachusetts, as the population grows older and the number of households with children begins to dwindle.
U.S. Census Figures Show Poverty Rates on Island Fall Below State
Average
By NIS KILDEGAARD
Poverty rates on Martha's Vineyard are lower than the
Massachusetts average, according to new statistics issued this week by
the U.S. Census Bureau. But the Census numbers, when viewed in detail,
paint a stark picture of a middle-class community where income still
falls beneath state averages even as housing costs climb to crippling
levels.
As a team of surveyors prepares to prep the Vineyard for the 2010 U.S. census, the dismal economy is adding bite to questions about accurately counting the transient Island population — since census numbers translate into government spending numbers.
The census provides a population snapshot of one day in April. It’s also a federal spending tool which the census bureau says accounts for some $300 billion in federal spending. Using census numbers, the government allocates spending for schools, roads, bridges, hospitals and other essential services.
Martha’s Vineyard renters and mortgage-holders are under extraordinary financial pressure, with a majority shelling out more than 30 per cent of their household income on housing, new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show.
Census figures based on samples taken from 2005 to 2009 were released on Tuesday. The numbers take in both boom and bust years in the American economy, suggesting they may spruce up the worst of the recession’s effects.
With 351 surveyors and 17,500 households, the grand tally of Martha’s Vineyard residents is still unknown as the 2010 U.S. Census comes to a close this month.
Six weeks have passed since John Newsom finished surveying Vineyard residents for the 2010 census; quality control officers concluded their surveys this week, and now all that’s left to do is count.
“Overall it was good. I can’t let out any government secrets,” Mr. Newsom said over the phone with a smile you could hear earlier this week.
A battered and idling Island workforce may get some relief in the coming weeks: the 2010 U.S. Census has begun aggressively recruiting census workers for the decennial inventory of the American people. Census officials expect to hire hundreds of Islanders for the house-by-house head count here.
