Are you among Kansans who haven’t responded to the census? Expect a knock on your door 

Census takers will start knocking on doors in Wichita and elsewhere in Kansas amid the coronavirus pandemic to get responses from more than one-third of Kansans who haven’t responded to the 2020 census.

The U.S. Census Bureau will begin following up this week with households in Kansas that have not yet responded, officials with the government agency said in a news release Monday. The statewide response rate is 65.9%, and federal employees will have to visit the remaining addresses to collect responses in person.

“Census takers will be wearing masks and are trained in social distancing protocols and other health and safety guidance,” officials said in a statement. “The Census takers are hired from their local communities. All census takers speak English, and many are bilingual. If a census taker does not speak the householder’s language, the household may request a return visit from a census taker who does.”

Census takers will have government-issued identification, and people can confirm an employee’s identity by calling 800-852-6159. The Wichita office of the Census Bureau serves 91 of the state’s 105 counties. The rest are served by the Overland Park office, which will begin follow-up operations next month.

If no one is home, the census taker will leave a notice of their visit with instructions on how to respond to the census. An additional reminder postcard will be sent this week or next week to households that have not responded.

It is not too late to respond by yourself, which can be done by mailing back the paper form, going online to www.2020census.gov or calling 844-330-2020.

Census results help determine how billions of dollars in federal funding are sent to states and communities, as well as how many seats in Congress each state gets.

The 65.9% response rate in Kansas is the 13th-best in the country. The nationwide response rate is 62.2%.

The Sedgwick County response rate is 65.8%, which ranks it as 20th out of 105 Kansas counties. Johnson County has the best response rate in the state at 75.1% while Kearny County is worst at 36.6%. Ten counties have response rates of less than 50%.

Wichita’s response rate is 63.9%. A Census Bureau map shows the response rate tends to be lower in the downtown area, as well as the north and south sides of the city. The east and west sides, as well as the suburban areas, tend to have higher response rates.