MOULTRIE, Ga. — Supporters of the Colquitt County census effort gathered Friday morning for a kick-off event.

Members of the county’s Complete Count Committee and others picked up resources to help spread the word about the upcoming population count.

The U.S. government counts the population every 10 years, as required by the Constitution. That count helps determine congressional and state legislative districts, but it does much more than that.

“I don’t know that everybody understands the impact, how important the census is,” Moultrie Mayor Bill McIntosh told the assembly in the lobby of the Colquitt County Courthouse Annex.

The data the census gathers is used by cities and counties to plan their services, McIntosh said. Businesses decide where to expand based on which areas the census says are growing. The government allocates grants, like the Community Development Block Grant, based on census numbers.

“The census gives a photo of what’s going on in your state, in your county, in your city,” McIntosh said.

Each person counted represents $23,000 in funding, Complete Count Committee Chairman Justin Cox said.

The distribution of more than $675 billion in federal funds, grants and support to states, counties and communities is based on census data, according to Census Bureau documents.

For the first time this year, most responses to the census are expected to be online, which concerns Colquitt County Commissioner Barbara Jelks, who noted many areas of the county lack reliable internet service.

But the Census Bureau has made arrangements, Jelks said. 

While the official national census kickoff is April 1, the census website will actually go live March 12, according to the Archway Partnership’s Sarah Adams. Archway is helping with this year’s census in Colquitt County, just as it did 10 years ago.

About the time the site goes live, residents will begin receiving invitations in the mail from the Census Bureau. Depending on how likely an area is to respond online, the invitations may include only instructions how to respond online or they may also include a paper questionnaire that can be mailed back.

A few days later, the Census Bureau will send out a reminder letter.

In late March or early April, residents will receive a reminder postcard.

Between April 8 and 16, they’ll receive another letter, along with a paper questionnaire.

Between April 20 and 27, they’ll receive a final reminder postcard.

If a household still hasn’t responded by that point, the bureau will send a census taker there to get the information in person.

“They have a system,” Adams said, “so if you respond, those mailings will stop.”

Adams said the Census Bureau is still hiring census takers for the Colquitt County area. The job is short-term, but it pays $15 an hour and 58 cents per mile. Apply online at 2020census.gov/jobs.