Fort Wayne Touts Census Response

  Despite the coronavirus pandemic, and in addition to ongoing political concerns surrounding this year’s survey, Fort Wayne and Allen County exceeded Census self-response rates from the 2010 count.
 
“Self-response rates” are the percentage of households that have completed the Census online, by phone or by mail without help from Census staff members, according to a press release from Fort Wayne city officials.
 
Fort Wayne’s 70.3 percent is a very minor improvement over its 69.8 percent rate in 2010, but exceeds the federal (64.1 percent) and state (68.9 percent) response rates. Allen County’s rate sits at an impressive 72.8 percent.
 
Despite these encouraging numbers, the count is ongoing, with the hope of surpassing the city’s 2020 participation rate of 77 percent by the end of the survey. Census totals help in determining the amount of federal money municipalities receive for programs like Medicaid as well as highway construction.