UMATILLA COUNTY — Oregon residents are responding to the 2020 Census at above-average rates, but there are still households in Umatilla County that need to be counted.

Census takers, officially known as enumerators, are in the process of visiting households that have not taken the initiative to self-respond to the census through mail, phone or online. Joanna Hayden, a census field supervisor in Umatilla County, said if people don’t want an enumerator showing up at their door, the best thing to do is to self-respond before that happens.

The next best thing is to give information the first time enumerators come around, so that they don’t keep returning. The census works best when it gives an accurate picture of a community’s demographics, Hayden said, but they will accept a simple count of the number of people in a household over getting nothing at all.

“If you say, ‘I don’t want to give you information, but I can tell you three people live here, but I won’t give you their age or sex,’ that’s at least something we can put in,” she said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s website, as of Aug. 26, 53.8% of Umatilla County residents had self-responded, 44.2% of Morrow County residents and 63.6% of Union County residents. Hermiston’s self-response rate was 62.2% and Pendleton’s was 59.4%.

While the website doesn’t break its enumerated counts down by county, statewide, 67.5% of Oregon residents have self-responded and enumerators have collected information for another 19.9%, for a total response of 87.4% so far. Nationwide, a total of 79.2% homes have been counted.

Denise Woods, an enumerator working in the Hermiston area, said it always feels good when she can talk to someone about the importance of the census and convince them to participate when they weren’t previously planning to.

“I’ve also encouraged the people who have responded to me in a positive way to encourage their friends and family to respond,” she said.

Early in the year, Hermiston’s Hispanic Advisory Committee discussed ways to help promote the census among the area’s Hispanic residents, and Woods said lately it has been apparent that someone has been helping educate the area’s Spanish-speaking residents on the importance of helping out the “censo” workers who come to their door.

“Whoever in the Hispanic community has been working on that, kudos to them,” she said.

As census workers continue to visit households, however, there are people of all demographics who are still declining to give information about how many people live in their household.

Hayden said people are “skeptical” of government these days and feel the census is an invasion of privacy, but she emphasized that individual answers are kept private by the census bureau.

She said people who are interested in genealogy work might be familiar with looking at old census records published a century or more ago that list details, such as household members’ occupation and the birthplace of their parents. The 2020 Census sticks to asking the name, sex, age and race of each household member, and those answers are not made public beyond being used to generate generalized population statistics for communities.

Those statistics are used for a variety of things, including an area’s representation in their state legislature and in Congress. Oregon is one of seven states projected to possibly add a seat in the federal House of Representatives, taking away a seat from a slower-growing state, such as New York.

“It’s important to make sure everyone is counted on the east side of the state, and making sure our voices are heard that way,” Hayden said.

Census data also helps determine the distribution of more than $800 billion in federal grants through more than 300 different programs, from Medicaid to Community Development Block Grants like the one that built Hermiston’s new senior center.

Hayden said businesses also look at census data to determine whether there are enough people in an area to support a new restaurant or store.

It’s not too late for those who haven’t filled out the census for their household yet to do so. They can mail back forms they were sent, visit my2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020 to get started.