U.S. Census Bureau needs takers for adequate counting

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — 2020 marks a fresh start for the United States Census Bureau to re-count the countries’ population.

But the bureau is having a tough time finding enough census takers.

“We are educating students about the census and why it’s not just this abstract adult idea of counting bodies,” associate director of Viterbo University student life Margy Frazier said.

Viterbo University is one of several local areas hosting census recruitment events to give people an opportunity for employment.

The bureau is looking for 500-thousand census takers for next year and could use any help it finds during recruitment.

“I’m hoping that students learn more about the power that citizens have in the United States, and that they can make a difference as low as just a citizen,” Frazier said.

Margy Frazier says a student becoming a census taker could give them a financial boost.

“With this process, they decide how to allocate federal funding, and that federal funding can offset a student’s ultimate cost of college,” Frazier said.

One portion of the area that has struggled to be counted is the Hmong community.

Hmong Cultural and Community Center president Tony Yang says La Crosse County has about 42-hundred Hmong people, and a majority of them did not get counted in the 2010 census because of language barriers.

“They don’t speak the language, and that seems to be much more difficult with them,” Yang said.

Yang wants to help with the community in any way possible to ensure every Hmong person is counted.

“We are citizens and real people that live in this community,” Yang said.

The Hmong population is only growing, and getting them counted is a step forward for this population locally and nationally.

“We are gonna be here for a long time. So it’s important that we get everybody counted I think,” Yang said.

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