San Juan leaders issue Census challenge

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) - Community leaders around Farmington are challenging residents to step up the mail response rate for the 2010 census survey.

The questionnaire arrived last week for most San Juan County households.

In 2000, only 65 percent of San Juan County residents responded to the census by mail. That required government workers to personally visit more than 13,000 county households.

The Census Bureau said the average return rate nationally in 2000 was 72 percent.

The federal government also stresses it's much cheaper for residents to mail back the census form at just 82 cents per household versus $67 per household to dispatch a government worker to conduct a personal interview.

The 2010 Census is important to San Juan County because the once-a-decade population count largely determines how federal funding is paid to the community.

---

Information from: The Daily Times