It's National Census Day Finally!

It's April Fools Day but this is no joke. It's National Census Day, the day Census officials would like you to get your Census forms in the mail to them, if you haven't already.

Because we use census data in-depth in transportation planning and our 'sister agency,' SRTC, is a state data center affiliate for the Census, we take the Census very serious here at KMPO. I think you can tell just how seriously from our Geographic Inforamtion Systems guy Kevin's get-up. And yes, even his headband has the Census logo on it. Is the headband overkill perhaps? Heck no, Kevin works up a sweat crunching numbers and the band keeps the sweat from getting in his eyes.

Kevin had some Census 'factoids' he filled me in on during this 'photo shoot': Dalton Gardens is the area, or Census 'tract,' with the highest return rate for Kootenai County so far (68%), and the northern-most tract in Kootenai County, which includes the Spirit Lake area (52%), has the lowest local return rate.

Not bad Kootenai County. Across the border in Spokane County, the Census tract with the lowest rate of return is the Hillyard area with 39%.

Want more facts? Her's a link to the U.S. Census Bureau website.