As a result of participation by thousands of Virgin Islanders, Census 2020 US Virgin Islands has completed data collection, a release issued Tuesday has made known. The effort of hundreds of Virgin Islands field and office census workers is done.
Census said questionnaires completed by field staff, going door-to-door on St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island, and during telephone interviews, have been double-checked and sent to the U.S. Census Bureau. The data are being processed and will become part of the statistical record of the territory, according to the release.
For the next 10 years, federal funds will be allocated to support vital Virgin Islands infrastructure, programs and services based, in part, on population, housing and income data gleaned from Census 2020 U.S. Virgin Islands responses.
“It is indeed a pleasure to see the work of this decennial census come to an end,” said St. Thomas-St. John Census Manager Dr. Frank Mills. “I want to commend the Census 2020 staff throughout the territory on a job well done.” Mills, who has administered Virgin Islands census counts in the territory since 1980, is proud of the work that was accomplished.
Mills and St. Croix Census Manager Lorna Williams-Sutton are poised to close the doors of the Census 2020 offices on St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John by mid-December. They expressed appreciation of the guidance of U.S. Census Bureau Advisors Dr. Tomás Encarnacion and Daniel Doyle, who supervised territorial data collection and who will return to their U.S. Census Bureau offices outside of Washington, D.C.
“I have nothing but the highest praise to extend to Dr. Encarnacion, Daniel Doyle and those St. Croix staff with whom I have had the pleasure of working,” said Williams-Sutton. “We faced enormous challenges posed by a global pandemic and everybody remained committed to the work at hand. For that I am truly grateful.”
According to the release, the first Virgin Islands census was conducted in 1917. Never before have territorial census workers encountered such life-altering crises as those faced by the staff of Census 2020 U.S. Virgin Islands. Despite national and local shutdowns and the adoption of mandated public health and safety protocols, the staff of Census 2020 US Virgin Islands worked with one goal in mind – to count every person once and in the right place.
For Census 2020 US Virgin Islands updates, please contact the U.S. Census Bureau’s Public Information Office at 1-800-923-8282 or ask.census.gov
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