California spent $187 million on census outreach, more than any other state in the nation.
Community groups across the state and in San Diego launched unprecedented outreach campaigns. Members of San Diego’s sprawling Count Me 2020 coalition volunteered more than 3,500 hours to bolster response rates.
They were largely successful, despite a pandemic knocking out face-to-face interactions and attempts by the Trump administration to suppress participation.
In San Diego County nearly 74 percent of households responded to census surveys a more than 5 percent increase over the 2010 census and California’s response rate, 70 percent, exceeded the national average.
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Yet California will lose a congressional seat even after our population increased by more than 2 million because our 6 percent growth rate is below the nation’s 7.4 percent average.