City-Sponsored Outreach Event Aimed To Register Tulsans For Census

The Tulsa Counts Census Outreach Team went to areas with low response rates Saturday to help encourage folks to fill out the 2020 Census.

Kyle Ofori serves as the Director of Community Partnerships with the city of Tulsa.

"It's been a tough year for everyone, and the pandemic doesn't make it easy,” Ofori said.

The self-response rate is around 59 percent this year compared to 64 percent in 2010. Ofori said the lower percentage is directly impacted by the pandemic.

"It wasn't safe to be going out and knocking on doors to begin the census the usual way,” Ofori said.

Every ten years, the U.S. government does a full count of the population. Ofori said the numbers are used for distributing federal resources to different states and communities depending on their census counts.

"So, that affects our roads and healthcare, which is important now, and it's also important for political representation,” Ofori said.

Ofori said residents might not be aware that there isn't a citizenship question on the form, despite the Trump administration's push to add one.

Ofori said it only takes about ten minutes to complete the form. If you would like to fill out the 2020 census, click here.