The census has a significant impact on the federal dollars Alaska receives with 18% of funding going directly to Alaska nonprofits.
The census has a significant impact on the federal dollars Alaska receives with 18% of funding going directly to Alaska nonprofits.
Every ten years, the U.S. Census Bureau sets out to count every resident of the United States through the Decennial U.S. Census. The results of this count affect everything from the number of congressional seats a state gets to the amount of federal funding it receives.Given that Alaska is the recipient in $3.2 billion of Census-based funding every year, we all have in interest in seeing every Alaskan counted. This is not an easy task — as the country’s largest and least densely populated state, Alaska has one of the hardest populations to count in the 2020 Census. To support this undertaking, Foraker has convened the Alaska Census Working Group (ACWG) and its education initiative, Alaska Counts.
Alaska Counts is a nonpartisan education initiative to inform public, private, nonprofit, and Native entities representing the interests of people around the state about the 2020 Census. The campaign is organized by the Alaska Census Working Group as the main census outreach effort in Alaska. Sign up for the Alaska Counts mailing list to stay in the loop.
Consider the ways Alaska uses census data:
In 2020, as in past censuses, many areas of Alaska will require special in-person counting methods used only in the country’s most difficult-to-reach areas. Even areas with high response rates will require costly in-person follow-up due to the state’s geography. Importantly, certain areas and groups of people are especially at risk of an undercount in Alaska, namely rural areas and those with large Alaska Native populations. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the 2010 Census undercounted American Indians and Alaska Natives living on reservations by 4.9% percent and undercounted Alaskans in the state’s special-enumeration districts by almost 8%.
Sufficient state and federal resources are vital to ensuring that all Alaskans are counted in 2020. While the current federal budget contains significant resources for the 2020 Census, it is important to ensure that the dollars are spent well, and that adequate resources are dedicated to our “difficult to count” state. Failure to sufficiently fund the 2020 Census in the next two fiscal years leading up to the 2020 count could have serious consequences for our state.
An undercount of Alaskans in the 2020 Census means:
While much of the early focus of the working group has been on building awareness of the importance of a fair and accurate count among local, state, and federal policy makers, our focus is shifting to ensuring the U.S. Census Bureau uses counting methods that recognize the uniqueness of Alaska.
Find out who is involved in the Alaska Census Working Group..
We urge you to learn everything you can about the 2020 Census and the American Community Survey, and prepare to advocate for them. If you have questions, please reach contact Alaska Counts at info@alaskacounts.net.