With less than a week left to fill out the 2020 United States Census, you should take the time to complete it if you haven’t already done so.
Why? Well, here’s two reasons: (1) the state of Mississippi receives $5,000 in federal dollars per year for each citizen accounted for, and (2) Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and Section 3559 make it legally obligatory for American citizens to complete the census.
“For every person that is not counted, we lose…approximately $5,000 per person,” Mississippi Complete Count Committee Chairman Giles Ward said. “We have a responsibility under federal law to respond to the census. Take away all of the economic advantages that you have…if you want to be a law-abiding citizen, you need to respond.”
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Thus far, 59.8 percent of identified households in Mississippi have self-responded, which is bad enough to put the state at 45th out of 50 in self-response rankings. The national self-response rate currently stands at 66.3 percent.
Like Ward said, if you want to help Mississippi receive the proper federal funding it deserves or you simply want to be a law-abiding citizen, you can go here to fill out the 10-minute, 10-question census. The deadline to do so is Wednesday, September 30th.
To learn more about the census and its importance, watch the video below.