Florida TaxWatch Analyzes County Participation in 2020 Census, Encourages Florida to Prepare for 2030

Tallahassee, Fla. – Today, Florida TaxWatch released 2020 Census: How Florida Counties Compare. This new report – which analyzes 2020 Census participation in each of Florida’s 67 counties – is being released in observance of National Census Day on Mon., April 1 and to encourage Floridians to begin preparing for the 2030 Census.

Florida TaxWatch Executive Vice President & General Counsel and Acting President & CEO Jeff Kottkamp said, “Submitting a decennial census survey is an important civic duty. The population insights the census survey provides help inform the work of Florida’s businesses, community leaders, and policymakers, while also ensuring our state – the fastest growing in the nation – receives its fair share of both federal representation and funding. Unfortunately, Florida has a history of census undercounts, which peaked in 2020 and cost us greatly. While the 2030 Census is still six years away, Florida TaxWatch offers this report as a resource for Florida’s counties, allowing them to better understand where they rank in terms of census participation and initiate efforts to improve both their individual showing and our overall performance in the next count.”

According to Florida TaxWatch, in 2000, Florida’s census undercount totaled 200,000 people, which cost the state $4 billion in federal funds. The undercount increased to 750,000 in 2020, which is expected to cost between $11 billion and $21 billion in federal funds by the end of the decade.

The self-response rate shows the percentage of households that submitted census surveys and correlates with a more complete count. Florida TaxWatch notes that, in 2020, the self-response rate for all addresses across Florida was 62.9 percent, lower than the national self-response rate of 65.2 percent. Additionally, the counties of Seminole (72 percent), Sumter (71 percent), and St. Johns (70.7 percent) were among the highest performing, with Dixie (30.5 percent), Liberty (31.4 percent), and Franklin (33.4 percent) counties among the lowest performing in terms of self-response rates.

Florida TaxWatch offers the following recommendations for stakeholders in each county to consider as the 2030 Census approaches:

• Stay up to date on census-related issues via the Florida TaxWatch Census Institute
• Encourage employers to share census information with employees and customers
• Encourage involvement by government officials (e.g., funding for census-related awareness campaigns)
• Invest in grassroots efforts to develop community-level plans that will support a complete census count

To access the full report, please click here. For more information about Florida TaxWatch’s census-related work and the Census Institute, please click here.

About Florida TaxWatch
As an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit government watchdog and taxpayer research institute, and the trusted “eyes and ears” of Florida taxpayers for more than 45 years, Florida TaxWatch (FTW) works to improve the productivity and accountability of Florida government. Its research recommends productivity enhancements and explains the statewide impact of fiscal and economic policies and practices on taxpayers and businesses. FTW is supported by its membership via voluntary, tax-deductible donations and private grants. Donations provide a solid, lasting foundation that has enabled FTW to bring about a more effective, responsive government that is more accountable to, and productive for, the taxpayers it serves since 1979. For more information, please visit www.floridataxwatch.org.