US Cities ranked by 2020 Census Response Rates (live, state, compared)

[dbcook1]

Hey everyone. I am not going to lie, I am a big time data geek. I have been tracking the Census Response Rate tracker website daily taking a look at how states, counties, cities, and even census tracts are performing with their self-response rates for the 2020 Census. I decided to rank every city proper in the US over 200,000 people by response rate as of 5/6/2020. Please note that Honolulu is not listed as city-level data is not provided for Hawaii (bummer). I included Arlington County, Virginia as a city-level equivalent due to its high degree of urban density. The national average is indicated in bold

Source: https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html

Also, apologies for the look of the formatting here. Still learning about that...

Lincoln_____________Nebraska_________71.0%
Boise_______________Idaho____________70.7%
Fremont____________California_________69.7%
Gilbert______________Arizona__________69.1%
Spokane____________Washington______68.7%
Madison____________Wisconsin________68.6%
Huntington Beach___California_________67.9%
Seattle______________Washington_______67.7%
Saint Paul___________Minnesota________67.5%
Chesapeake_________Virginia__________67.5%
Henderson__________Nevada___________67.1%
Arlington____________Virginia__________66.5%
San Jose____________California________66.3%
Colorado Springs____Colorado________65.8%
Minneapolis_________Minnesota_______65.7%
Portland_____________Oregon__________65.3%
Omaha______________Nebraska________65.2%
Virginia Beach_______Virginia__________65.2%
Chandler____________Arizona__________65.0%
Plano_______________Texas____________64.7%
Tacoma_____________Washington______64.7%
Santa Clarita________California________64.6%
Lexington___________Kentucky_________64.5%
San Diego___________California________64.3%
Fort Wayne__________Indiana__________64.0%
Grand Rapids________Michigan_________64.0%
Irvine________________California________63.6%
Modesto____________California_________63.4%
Chula Vista__________California________63.3%
Anaheim_____________California________63.2%
Aurora_______________Colorado________63.2%
Glendale_____________California________63.0%
Sacramento__________California________61.6%
Salt Lake City_________Utah____________61.6%
Albuquerque_________New Mexico______61.3%
Riverside_____________California________61.1%
Wichita______________Kansas___________60.8%
Fontana_____________California_________60.6%
Denver______________Colorado_________60.4%
Oakland______________California________60.0%
Garland______________Texas____________60.0%
Las Vegas____________Nevada__________59.5%
Reno_________________Nevada__________59.5%
Scottsdale____________Arizona__________59.3%
St. Petersburg_________Florida__________58.9%
North Las Vegas______Nevada__________58.9%
Moreno Valley_________California________58.8%
Des Moines___________Iowa_____________58.8%
Jacksonville___________Florida__________58.6%
Santa Ana____________California_________58.4%
Arlington_____________Texas_____________58.3%
Oxnard_______________California_________58.0%
Raleigh_______________North Carolina____58.0%
Mesa_________________Arizona___________57.8%
Long Beach___________California_________57.7%
NATIONAL_________AVERAGE________57.7%
Hialeah_______________Florida____________57.4%
Greensboro___________North Carolina_____57.2%
Oklahoma City________Oklahoma_________57.1%
Fresno________________California_________57.0%
Bakersfield____________California_________56.8%
Indianapolis___________Indiana___________56.8%
El Paso________________Texas____________56.6%
Austin_________________Texas____________56.3%
Tucson________________Arizona__________56.1%
San Francisco_________California_________56.0%
Phoenix_______________Arizona___________55.9%
Glendale______________Arizona___________55.8%
Charlotte______________North Carolina____55.8%
Stockton______________California_________55.7%
Anchorage____________Alaska____________55.6%
Fort Worth____________Texas_____________55.4%
Tampa________________Florida____________55.3%
Louisville_____________Kentucky__________55.3%
Lubbock______________Texas_____________55.2%
Tulsa_________________Oklahoma_________54.9%
Norfolk_______________Virginia___________54.7%
Pittsburgh____________Pennsylvania______54.5%
Nashville______________Tennessee________54.2%
San Antonio___________Texas_____________54.2%
Columbus_____________Ohio______________54.0%
Washington_________District of Columbia_53.5%
Durham_______________North Carolina_____53.3%
Milwaukee____________Wisconsin_________53.3%
Richmond_____________Virginia___________52.8%
Kansas City____________Missouri__________52.6%
Winston–Salem________North Carolina____52.5%
San Bernardino_________California________52.2%
Fayetteville_____________North Carolina____52.2%
Toledo__________________Ohio_____________51.7%
Baton Rouge____________Louisiana________51.6%
Irving___________________Texas____________50.8%
Atlanta_________________Georgia___________50.2%
Chicago________________Illinois____________50.1%
New Orleans___________Louisiana_________50.0%
Orlando________________Florida____________49.9%
Dallas__________________Texas____________49.6%
Memphis______________Tennessee________49.0%
Houston________________Texas____________48.3%
Corpus Christi__________Texas____________48.3%
Cincinnati_______________Ohio_____________48.2%
Boston_________________Massachusetts___47.9%
Birmingham_____________Alabama________47.8%
Los Angeles____________California________47.7%
Baltimore_______________Maryland_________47.6%
St. Louis______________Missouri__________46.5%
New York_______________New York_________46.4%
Philadelphia____________Pennsylvania______46.3%
Buffalo__________________New York________44.8%
Jersey City_____________New Jersey_______44.1%
Detroit__________________Michigan_________43.5%
Miami___________________Florida___________43.3%
Cleveland________________Ohio_____________43.2%
Rochester_______________New York________42.7%
Laredo__________________Texas____________40.0%
Newark_______________New Jersey_______39.2%

[Taynxtlvl]

I wonder why boston is so low. It's a very intellectual city so one would think they would be responding with a quickness to the census documents and website etc.

[manitopiaaa]

So what's the benefit to having a high response rate anyway? Doesn't Census just make a guess for the 40% who don't respond?

It's not like the population totals are equal to the sum of responses.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Taynxtlvl

I wonder why boston is so low. It's a very intellectual city so one would think they would be responding with a quickness to the census documents and website etc.

Slight misconception.


Lotta immigrants and still has a large non-intellectual working class population. Fairly high poverty rate. Cambridge would probably be much higher. Also lot of multi family units and people who move around a lot.

[dbcook1]

Originally Posted by Taynxtlvl

I wonder why boston is so low. It's a very intellectual city so one would think they would be responding with a quickness to the census documents and website etc.

This surprised me too. Just a wild guess here; Boston city proper has 152,000 university students who live in the city during the usual academic school year making up nearly 1/4 of the city population. I would imagine a relatively higher percentage of them live in non-traditional off-campus rental housing compared to other college towns where most live in dorms. With COVID-19 shutting down the universities there I would imagine there to be quite a few vacant properties that would otherwise be filled with college students who are back home during all this. Of course I could be wrong and there are probably other factors at play such as the large immigrant population there not responding at a high rate possibly?

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by Taynxtlvl

I wonder why boston is so low. It's a very intellectual city so one would think they would be responding with a quickness to the census documents and website etc.

College students most likely. Many of them sent home prior to April 1st.

[Drewjdeg]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

College students most likely. Many of them sent home prior to April 1st.

That didn't seem to hurt Madison or Lincoln.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by Drewjdeg

That didn't seem to hurt Madison or Lincoln.

I would assume a far greater percentage of students live on campus (which gets auto counted by the institution in those places.) Plus the non college population is much less diverse and immigrant heavy than typical major cities. (Which I assume they’re comparing Boston too)

[Drewjdeg]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

I would assume a far greater percentage of students live on campus (which gets auto counted by the institution in those places.) Plus the non college population is much less diverse and immigrant heavy than typical major cities. (Which I assume they’re comparing Boston too)

What about Irvine then? I believe UC Irvine has a large international population.

[Texamichiforniasota]

Originally Posted by Drewjdeg

What about Irvine then? I believe UC Irvine has a large international population.

UCI is still primarily a commuter and dorm school. About 1/3 of students live in dorms, and dorms are directly reported to the the Census by the school, as per btownboss4's post above. Most of the rest of the students either live with their parents and commute to school, or rent in other cities. There are some student heavy apartments near campus, but that's a smaller percentage of the students, and a small overall percent of Irvine's population.