April 1 is officially “Census Day” in the United States, although people can go online now and complete the form. So far, more than a quarter of Cullman County households have responded.

Reminders to go online and complete the census form were sent to households in March. 

So far, 27.6 precent of Cullman County residents and 29.3 percent of city of Cullman residents have responded to the census. Alabama’s response rate is 27.7 percent, above the national rate of 26.2 percent.

“We are excited to see our response is over 25 percent in Cullman County in the first two weeks but we can’t stop there,” said Cullman Economic Development Special Projects Coordinator Susan Eller. “We need everyone to fill out their census and this year it is easier than ever by going to www.alabama2020census.com. Make sure you count by filling out your form today. If you have filled yours out, challenge your friends to fill theirs out.”

The census count is done every 10 years and information gathered from the count is used to determine how federal funds for schools, roads, disasters and other programs are allocated to local governments.

“When you look at this from a statewide perspective, I deal with retail in the community,” said Eller. “These census numbers help determine how much of the online sales tax collected comes back to Cullman County and all municipalities. It is split based on the percentage of population. If you’re not counted, we don’t get our fair share.”

Cullman Emergency Management Agency Director Phyllis Little said census numbers are also used in determining how much federal funding counties receive following disasters. In order to qualify for federal disaster funding, counties have to meet a damage threshold of $3.84 per person of uninsured loss.

In the 2010, 72 percent of Alabamians completed the census. According to the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, Alabama currently receives $1,567 per capita, so for every person not counted, the state does not receive that funding. The most undercounted population was children.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Census Bureau is delaying the start of its mobile questionnaire assistance and its early nonresponse followup operation.

The mobile assistance program was scheduled to begin on March 30, but has now been pushed back to April 13. The early nonresponse followups, set to begin on April 9 with households around some college and university campuses, will now begin on April 23, the Census Bureau said.

Local events in all the communities to promote the census have also been postponed for at least 30 days.

The Census Bureau had planned to have the census count completed by July, but recently posted on its website that the count may be extended if needed.