Buffalo and Johnson County are still among the state’s leaders in responding to the 2020 Census.

As of Tuesday, April 14, the statewide response rate for Wyoming is at 39.6 percent.

However, Buffalo leads all cities in responding with nearly 60% completion, nearly 3% better than the next closest city.

Johnson County ranks 2nd in the state at 50.7% trailing Laramie County by less than 2%.

For comparison, the national self-response rate is 48.6 percent.

One of the biggest challenges facing response rates in Wyoming is the fact that approximately 23 percent of residents live in an area designated as “Update Leave.”

Update Leave areas are part of a special operation for the Census Bureau and encompass rural locations that have city-style addresses but may use P.O. boxes to receive their mail, or it can be homes that contain rural route or highway contract route addresses.

These locations have not yet received a formal 2020 Census invitation or paper questionnaire, which is contributing to the lower statewide self-response numbers.

That explanation only serves to highlight the local responses in Johnson County and the City of Buffalo.

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