The Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been recognized by the United States Census Bureau as an “invaluable” member of the 2020 Census Community Partnership and Engagement Program for our Chamber’s support of the City of Elmhurst Complete Count Committee’s Everyone Counts, Elmhurst! campaign.
Elmhurst was among 2,015 Complete Count Committees to collaborate with more than 50,550 partners, ECCI among them.
“Together, we ensured the Census had the most up-to-date address file, delivered paper questionnaires to rural areas, recruited workers during one of the lowest periods of unemployment, took on a global pandemic through unique virtual engagement, and engaged communities through Got Out The Count (GOTC) efforts that bought Census staff to historically undercounted neighborhoods,” stated Marilyn A. Sanders, Chicago Regional Director, U.S. Census Bureau in a letter to census partners.
Mandated by the U.S. Constitution for every 10 years, the Decennial Census provides the federal government with population data used to appropriate some $700 billion annually in state, county and local funding for public education, transportation infrastructure and healthcare programs—worth an estimated $180 per resident to Elmhurst.
In addition, the number of seats proportioned to Illinois’ delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives is dependent on these census figures. With a population of approximately 12.63 million (200,000 less than in 2010), Illinois will be forfeiting one of 18 Congressional seats and now stands only 126,000 above the threshold for losing another Representative.
The 12-state Midwest Region—which includes the five-state East North Central Division of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio—reported the highest self-response rate of all four Regions at 69.8 percent, exceeding the National Self-Response Rate of 67 percent.
As of the October 15 self-response deadline, 84.3 percent of Elmhurst households self-responded (a higher rate than in 2010), as compared to 80.8 percent across DuPage County and 71.4 percent statewide.
The Census Bureau reported a 99.9 percent completion of households that required physical enumeration.