DELAND -- Volusia County’s mail participation rate hit 22 percent Thursday, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which is updating data daily at http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/.
The nation’s rate is 29 percent, and Florida’s is 20 percent, said Pat Kuehn, a Volusia County spokeswoman.
The top-ranking Volusia County cities are Ormond Beach and Edgewater, with 27 percent each, followed by Port Orange with 25 percent, Kuehn said. Here's a breakdown by city:
Daytona Beach 18%
Daytona Beach Shores 14%
DeBary 23%
DeLand 21%
Deltona 22%
Edgewater 27%
Holly Hill 19%
Lake Helen 21%
New Smyrna Beach 21%
Oak Hill 16%
Orange City 23%
Ormond Beach 27%
Pierson 14%
Ponce Inlet 19%
Port Orange 25%
South Daytona 20%
The Census Bureau encourages residents to return their census forms by April 19.
Those who didn’t receive a form, or lost their form, may pick up one up at any Volusia County public library. Residents who don’t return their forms will be visited by census takers in May and June.
This year, the U.S. Census Bureau is using a mail participation rate to determine percentages of responses.
The mail participation rate is the percentage of forms mailed back by households that received them. The Census Bureau developed this new measure in 2010, in part because of the current economy and higher rates of vacant housing. The rate excludes households whose forms were returned by the U.S. Postal Service as “undeliverable,” strongly suggesting the house was vacant. The Census Bureau still will follow up on all these housing units to ensure everyone is counted.
The mail participation rate is a higher number than the mail response rate the Census Bureau has used over the last decade, but it is a better measure of actual participation. In 2000, the national mail response rate was 67 percent and the comparable national mail participation rate was 72 percent.
If the Census Bureau had used the mail participation rate in 2000, Volusia County’s response rate would have been 73 percent instead of 67 percent. This would not have affected the total population figures, upon which federal funding determinations are based. Response rates are used only for comparative purposes.
2000 Census results
MRR* MPR** Population
Volusia County 67% 74% 443,343
Florida return rate 67% 69%
15,982,813
U.S. return
rate 67% 72% 281,424,602
Daytona Beach 59% 64% 64,112
Daytona Beach Shores 50% 60%
4,299
DeBary 77% 83% 15,559
DeLand 66% 73% 20,904
Deltona 74% 80%
69,543
Edgewater 75% 80%
18,668
Holly Hill 64% 68%
12,119
Lake Helen 67% 79%
2,743
New Smyrna Beach 60% 69%
20,048
Oak Hill 46% 55%
1,378
Orange City 70% 75%
36,301
Pierson 60% 57%
2,596
Ponce Inlet 51% 67%
2,513
Port Orange 76% 80%
45,823
South Daytona 69% 74% 13,840
*Mail response rate
**Mail participation rate