Lewis County 24th Among Washington’s 39 Counties in Census Self-Response

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Less than two weeks after the 2020 census began mailing Americans invitations to respond to questionnaires, 16.2 percent of Lewis County households had responded, according to data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lewis County’s 16.2 percent self-response rate is good for 24th among Washington’s 39 counties, which puts them ahead of some neighboring counties such as Grays Harbor County and Skamania County.

Some neighboring counties’ who had higher self-response rates than Lewis County included Thurston County at 17.9 percent; Pierce County at 17.9 percent and Yakima County at 16.6 percent.

A little less than 23 percent of Centralia households had self-responded, putting them on par with the 23.6 percent of Seattlites who have already responded. Chehalis came in two points below Centralia with a 20.2 percent self-response rate.

In terms of Washington congressional districts, District 3 ranked better than Lewis County did, finding itself fifth among the ten congressional districts with an 18.5 percent self-response rate.



As a state, Washington’s self-response rate was just above the national average of 19.2 percent. However, the state’s self-response rate is the lowest of Pacific Northwest states with Idaho’s response rate at 22.5 percent and Oregon at 19.6 percent.

As anticipated, rural towns have not had high response rates in the first two weeks. In Grant County, the 4,437-person town of Mattawa had a 0.2 percent response rate. And even lower, In Marlin — formally known as Krupp — the least-populated incorporated place in Washington with 48 residents, the response rate was zero percent.

Washingtonians have until May to respond to the census at 2020census.gov, via a toll-free number or by mailing back a paper questionnaire.