If nobody from the V.I. Census Office has come by to pick up your questionnaire yet, don't be concerned. They're working on it.
The process of counting the projected 40,000-plus households in the territory is perhaps half completed, Census 2000 manager Frank Mills said Monday. But that, he stressed, is a "cautious, very cautious" estimate.
"It would be a little premature to announce any figures right now," Mills said. He added, however, that he is "extremely pleased" with the results so far. This is the first year the territory has distributed questionnaires by mail. Census enumerators are in the process of going door to door collecting the completed forms.
"I think we are a little more sophisticated than Washington gave us credit for," Mills said. "We are doing very well in comparison to the states, where only 66 percent of the mailed-out questionnaires have been returned." There, respondents are to return their completed forms by mail, too. Puerto Rico this year went from having house-to-house enumerators to having people mail in the questionnaires, and the response rate reportedly has been disappointingly low.
Some areas within the territory have posed unique challenges to those in charge of picking up the forms. For instance, how do you reach the people living on boats who are not tied up at a marina? The answer is by dinghy, going boat by boat, and employing members of the boating community to do the counting.
The many moorings and anchorages off all four islands present a challenge, Mills said, but the census takers are making headway. "We try to hire people from the different areas to work with their own particular groups," he noted.
Another example of this is the use of Hispanic enumerators to work within the Hispanic community, Mills said, in an effort to alleviate the fears of many non-U.S. citizens with regard to being documented. "It is important that the Latin community understand that we are not the Immigration service, nor are we connected with the Labor Department," he said. Public relations outreach for the V.I. Census has emphasized that all information provided in the questionnaires is confidential, and no other government or private office will have access to it.
Other than locked gates, no-shows for appointments, unfriendly dogs and other such impediments to collecting the completed forms, Mills said, the process by and large is "going very smoothly."
Two important steps in the census process previously carried out on the mainland are being performed in the territory for the first time, he said.
One is "editing" the information in the questionnaires for clarity and consistency. For instance, there's something wrong if a respondent checks off having had three children and the respondent is a man. Or — and these things do happen, Mills said — employment and salary figures are reported for a 5-year-old. About 10 workers each on St. Thomas and St. Croix are editing 500 to 600 questionnaires daily to weed out these responses, he said.
The other function being carried out locally for the first time is coding the responses for computer processing. The territory has about 400 census takers working now, Mills said, and by next Monday another 15 will be on board to do coding. After battling with the U.S. Census Bureau, Mills said, he has finally arranged to have the coding done in the territory where "we are more familiar with the information." Each response to each question must be coded.
A lot of people have contacted him asking that the definition "native Virgin Islander" be included as an option in the census question on racial identity, Mills said. It is not listed as an option, but respondents can write that definition in under "other" — and also list multiple ethnic identities if they desire.
Another challenge, Mills said with a sigh, is the age-old problem of just where someone lives in the Virgin Islands. Street numbers aren't consistent, and "down the corner by the tamarind tree" won't do.
He said that by the next census, in 2010, he hopes to see the post office box records showing the street addresses of the boxholders, which would make life easier for everybody. Local street addresses have posed problems for Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel searching out disaster assistance grant applicants after storms, he noted.
At some point in the counting, Mills said, those persons who haven't been contacted by a census representative will be asked to get in touch on their own with the V.I. Census office in their district. He said he hopes the field work will be completed by the end of August. "But, you can't tell," he added. "If there should be a storm, we don't have the luxury of waiting until next year. We'll just have to keep on."
