Manhattan Lags Behind NY State In Census Response

MANHATTAN, NY — Just over half of Manhattan's 1.6 million residents have responded to this year's census, netting the borough a lower response rate than New York State and the United States as a whole, according to data collected by the Census Bureau.

Manhattan's response rate of 55.8 percent is lower than the state's 58.3 percent and the country's 62.8 percent response rates, according to Census Bureau data. New York City officials have spent the past week telling New Yorkers to respond to the census so the city doesn't lose political influence and federal funding.

"We are in the streets all over New York City in safe, socially distant activities in parks and playgrounds. And that hard work I think is really paying off because we've seen incredible self-response rates in the past couple of weeks in particular, three times the national average, but we really need all New Yorkers to participate," the city's Census Director Julie Menin said during Mayor Bill de Blasio's Wednesday press briefing.

Menin said Wednesday that filling out the census will have a direct effect on the city's ability to deal with emergencies by invoking the city's devastating coronavirus outbreak in the spring. If more New Yorkers had filled out the census in 2010 the city would have had more federal money for Medicaid and city health centers, Menin said.

The census, which is conducted every 10 years, determines the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and how to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding for schools, roads and bridges, public transportation, hospitals and other critical services.

New York City's five boroughs are currently engaged in a competition to raise census response rates, which is set to come to an end on Aug. 2. Winners of the Census PUSH Week competition will be announced Aug. 4.

Manhattan Borough President kicked off the week with a census outreach event in Chinatown and is planning a march on Friday between Union Square and Washington Square Park to raise awareness about the census.

Some of Manhattan's wealthiest neighborhoods are responsible for the borough's low response rate, according to Census Burea data. Census tracts on the Tribeca and West Village waterfronts, along Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side and in the vicinity of Midtown's "Billionaire's Row" have some of the worst response rates in Manhattan.

New Yorkers can fill out the census online at 2020census.gov or over the phone by calling 844-330-2020. Click here for more information on the 2020 U.S. Census and why it matters. The bureau has pushed back the deadline for census submissions to Oct. 31 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The original deadline was set for July 31.

Patch's Maya Kaufman contributed to this report.