Early Census returns in Warren exceed the state-wide average.

“It’s early in the response window, but so far response to the Census in Warren County has been good,” County Planner Dan Glotz, who also chairs the county’s Complete Count Committee, said.

From data dated March 22, the 26.8 percent return rate in Warren County surpasses the 22.3 percent return rate state-wide as well as the 21 percent return at the national level.

The Census Bureau provides a multi-layered map that allows anyone interested to look at survey response data down to the township level.

That data shows a higher level of return — 41.9 in Pleasant Township, 41.9 percent in Glade Township and 39.2 percent in Conewango — in the more densely-populated portions of the county while the lowest response rates at this stage — 3.7 percent in Limestone, for example — are in the more sparsely-populated areas

Unsurprisingly, though, the Census Bureau has had to adapt in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

According to documentation provided by Glotz, the Census Bureau has extended multiple elements of the operation by two weeks.

The self-response phase — whether online, phone or email — was set to run through July 31 and has been pushed back two weeks.

The process of in-person interviews was set to start May 13 and has also been pushed back two weeks as have a myriad number of the elements that go into conducting the census.

However, at this point, Census officials still expect to have the population total for each state to the president by December 31 and redistricting counts to each state — needed to complete legislative redistricting — by April 1, 2021.