On January 21, the day after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau launched its decennial count of the population, beginning with inhabitants of remote parts of Alaska. During the week of March 12, just as the pandemic was beginning to explode across the nation, the Bureau mailed instructions to Americans that explained how to self-report. In addition to giving respondents the option of replying via the U.S. mail or by phone, the Census also debuted a new online-response option.
This expansion of the self-response choices was timely, since the Bureau had decided to curtail in-person interviews in response to the pandemic. Hurricanes and a vicious wildfire season would also put a damper on the Bureau’s traditional method of sending survey collectors into the field. Now that so many people were spending more of their time at home, perhaps they’d be more likely to remember to respond without a Census worker showing up at their door.
Using some statistical markers, the Census Bureau set a goal of a 60.5 percent national response rate, which the agency wound up exceeding by seven percent. More than half of the self-responders chose the internet option.
This animated map was made using Esri's ArcGIS Pro, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and Adobe After Effects. Please visit http://ow.ly/fm2950xgu0B for more information about ArcGIS Pro.
Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau (http://ow.ly/N7fD50CIax6 and http://ow.ly/tClc50CIazI)
Music: Discovery by Roman P
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