'00 Census omissions hurt Utah

Utah Planning Director Mike Mower says studies estimate that, 10 years ago, 30,000 Utahns did not respond to the 2000 Census.

That cost the state an extra U.S. House seat (census officials figured that if an extra 80 or so people had been counted in Utah, it would have received the last-available House seat instead of North Carolina). It also likely cost the state millions in federal spending from population-based formulas.

So Mower told the Legislature's Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee on Wednesday that the state is doing all it can to encourage everyone in the state to participate in the 2010 Census next spring.

State demographer Juliette Tennert said that has included giving local governments copies of address lists the census is planning to use, so they can point out any omissions. Mower said the state is also encouraging hard-to-reach populations, including the homeless and immigrants who may worry responding could hurt them.

Legislators asked if the census will count missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who serve out of state — since the state contended 10 years ago that their exclusion was among the reasons Utah did not gain a fourth U.S. House seat.

LDS missionaries living outside the state will not be counted as Utah residents, said Daniel Pacheco, a partnership specialist for the census.

He said the only Americans living in foreign countries who are counted are active military personnel. Also, he said missionaries from Utah who serve in other U.S. states are counted where they are serving because of "usual residence rules."

Pacheco said, "We count folks where they live and sleep most the time."

For example, he said, if a college student was raised in Cedar City but is attending college in Logan, "what municipality is providing municipal services for that young man? Logan is, so Logan counts him." The same rules apply to missionaries.

For those out of the country, "The military is counted. All others (are not), and this is not just a missionary issue. It's all those college students, it's all those grandmas who go to Brazil for a month and decide to stay for a year. It's the sales people. There are approximately 6 million U.S. citizens out of the country," he said.

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