The upcoming US Census matters to rural small businesses because it will affect your community for the next ten years.
Census data is key to:
- Federal grants, especially CDBG and Rural Development
- Economic development efforts
- Redrawing political boundaries from Congressional districts, all the way down to local political boundaries
- Every single person counted brings $790 back to the community through grants and programs
(I heard that $790 figure from Brent Kisling, Enid (OK) economic developer at a meeting of the Northwest Oklahoma Alliance.)
Most small towns and small businesses can’t afford to do their own research of population or demographics, so Census data is usually the best available data. That makes it in your own best interest to be sure the Census data is as good as possible.
Once big problem the Census faces is that rural people can be very private, and resent anyone prying into personal information. Good news; this year the Census form is only 10 questions. Also, the Census Bureau is forbidden by Federal law to share anyone’s answers with any other agency, including law enforcement.
Getting Involved
Census day is April 1, 2010. Start by looking around the 2010 Census site for more information
What can your small business do?
- Talk to your employees about participating.
- Print the simple factsheet at the Census Bureau site and make it available to customers.
- Use your marketing, online and offline, to promote participation. (There is a promotional toolkit available from the Census Bureau and even more materials here.)
- Help other local organizations with their census outreach.
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
Becky,
No doubt. The census is real important. Unfortunately, we may be losing a lot of it’s value.
I recently talked to a rural sociologist who makes his living off the census who said that rural communities will lose all types of data because of the movement away from the long form. Have you heard anything about this?
Mike, I have not heard about this, but I can see how he came to that conclusion. With the short form, the more in depth questions are moving to the American Community Survey. Fewer people receive those. And you can guess how well rural communities will be represented.
The flip side is that the ACS will be run every year. Will that mean we get better, more current data across the decade?
Bottom line: promote the Census. Your community depends on the result.
Sandy Maxey told me on Twitter that the North Carolina Rural Center states that it costs a community $1500 per person not counted. (See Sandy’s tweet.)
I’m still looking for a basis for either of the per person figures.
I am happy that census is here, since I tend to use some of their data for work. Moving to the short form does concern me that valuable info will be lost.
Getting people to participate will be so important as we move to more tech/online world, small communities need a voice or will continue to loose out.
Robert, thanks for adding to the conversation!
Becky, there’s a post about the Census over on Business.gov, the government small business resource run by the SBA that might be interesting, written by the NYS Small Business Development Center Research Network. It covers some of the misinformation and scams going around associated with the Census, and has some links to other resources — http://community2.business.gov/t5/The-Industry-Word/Census-2010-is-Coming-As-Though-You-Didn-t-Know/ba-p/15894
Thank you, Sean. The census was a hot topic at the Oklahoma Entrepreneur’s Conference this week.