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As of Aug. 17, 2020, Dare County’s estimated actual overall response rate to the 2020 Census is 80.63%.

That figure differs from the one reported on the Census website, which ranks Dare County at a 34.6% rate, near the bottom of the state’s 100 counties.

The Census figure fails to account for vacant second homes in Dare County. When those vacant houses are taken out of the equation, the self-response rate is 80.63%.

At Aug. 18, the 2020 Census website shows North Carolina’s statewide self-response rate at 59.9%. The national response rate is 64.0%

At the Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting Aug. 17, Derek A. Dorazio, partnership specialist, said the same problem with vacant second houses plagues other coastal and western counties, too.

Dorazio reported that people can self-respond until Sept. 30, 2020 by going to my2020census.gov.

Census workers are now following up on those households which have not responded. These workers will try up to six times to reach someone.

As of August 17, 2020:

Southern Shores and Duck, 119.25 %

Kitty Hawk, 82.86 %

Kill Devil Hills, 83.60 %

Colington, 102.61%

Nags Head, 87.39 %

Mainland Dare, 53.26 %

Hatteras Island, 74.51 %

Manteo/Northern Roanoke Island, 64.17 %

Wanchese, 58.03 %

(Source: Dare County)

The two lowest self-response rates are in Mainland Dare (53.26%) and Wanchese (58.03%).

Southern Shores and Duck show a response rate above 100%. As noted on the Dare County website, a certain margin of error is associated with the estimated occupancy percentages used to calculate the response rate shown. It is also possible that people who have second homes in Dare County, but who live elsewhere most of the year, are completing the Census using Dare County addresses. In that case, those responses will be removed in the final number for Dare County as duplicate responses are detected and deleted when the Census Bureau processes all of the data. Those people will then be counted only in their primary place of residence.

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