KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Some areas of Knox County are far below the national response rate to the 2020 Census, according to the Tennessee State Data Center.
Only around 30 percent of people in areas like Fort Sanders and downtown responded to the census. Officials with the TSDC also said that around 62.6 percent of people responded to the census, nationally. Areas in Northwest and South Knox County had the highest response rates, at around 80 percent.
Officials said low response rates could be due to students moving out of popular off-campus housing areas. They said lower response rates in areas surrounding the University of Tennessee highlighted the challenge of contacting student households.
The data center also said that a push by the state to collect more responses to the census is helping. They said there have been more than 1,500 responses per day since June 19.
They also said the state is 115,000 responses away from matching 2010 levels.