EDITORIAL: Those census mailings counted

Remember those annoying letters about the 2010 census? First the ones announcing your forms would soon arrive, then the ones saying your forms should have come already. Most of us wondered whether there was a reason we needed notification that mail was imminent, or that it had already arrived.

Well . . . there was.

The Census Bureau has announced it will return $1.6 billion allocated for the 2010 census to the federal treasury. About $800 million of that was a fund for contingencies that never happened. But $650 million in savings was realized in the door-to-door operation. Since 72 percent of households returned questionnaires by mail, fewer home visits were needed.

Census workers knock on doors up to six times before giving up. That's an expensive process, costing about $57 per household to get the information. For each percentage point of households that mailed their forms back, the Census Bureau saved $85 million. The mailings themselves cost about $50 million each.

Analysis of the 2000 census showed the pre-census and post-census mailings increased the mail-back percentage by 6 points. And this year's performance looks comparable, indicating that the 2000 mailer boost was no fluke.

So, as is often the case, the government was irritating, but we must give credit where credit is due: It was also prudent - and under budget. hN