City Census numbers see slight increase due to $500 utility raffles

ALBANY, Ga. – Dougherty County’s Census response rate is still lower than the national rate, lower than the state and lower than it’s response rate from 10 years ago.

The Census is wrapping up at the end of the month and city and county leaders are scrambling to increase the area’s response rate. Right now, the county’s self-response rate is at 58.3%, Albany mayor Bo Dorough says the area needs to meet or exceed the national response rate of 65.3%.

“Otherwise we will be under represented in congress and the state legislature, efforts to bring jobs to our community will be frustrated and more importantly we will lose out on the federal funding,” said Dorough.

The results of the 2020 Census will inform decisions about allocating hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding to communities across the country.

“Every person we get, that’s $20,000 to $30,000 dollars that comes to the community that we would miss out on otherwise, so every person does really count,” says Paul Forgey, director of Planning and Development for the city of Albany and Dougherty County.

To increase participation, the Albany-Dougherty Complete Count Committee is going around town in a census float helping people sign up. 

“Even when we sit out there for four hours and only get six people that’s well worth it because it means a lot to the community for the next 10 years.”

The city is also raffling off $500 in utility credit to those who’ve completed the form. There will be a total of 15 raffles.

“Those are really getting a lot of people to respond, so the investment by the utility board has really been huge and it’s going to pay off in the long run.”

Due to the ongoing media push, Forgey says there’s been a .8% increase in census self-response for the city. That number may seem low but that translates to 300 households.