OGDEN -- Confusion about seemingly mismatched addresses on 2010 U.S. Census forms has led to a clarification from Ogden and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Ogden resident Cindy Hellstrom was one of the concerned citizens who contacted the city about the address label on her census questionnaire.
"We noticed that our census has the city of Hooper on it, it doesn't have Ogden," Hellstrom said.
"If they're allocating money by your city code and they have the city code wrong in their computer system, wouldn't it be kind of funny if all of a sudden Hooper has 80,000 people instead of five (thousand)?"
City officials contacted the U.S. Census Bureau for the answer: It's a matter of logistics and economics.
"If your form has a different city name or ZIP code than the one you are used to seeing on your mail, it is merely a result of a cost-saving measure that streamlines how the forms are sorted and delivered to you by the U.S. Postal Service," bureau officials said in a statement released by the city.
"It will not affect which city, town or block your household's responses will be assigned to when census results are tabulated."
A bar code on each form links to the bureau's address file and identifies the actual geographic location, verified by census workers last year.
That means some Ogden residents in the 84401 ZIP code area will receive forms with Hooper on the address label, but still will be counted as Ogden citizens.
Hellstrom worries some people will have the same reaction that her 81-year-old neighbor did when she received the form.
"She said, 'I'm not even returning it, it's not to the right city,' " Hellstrom said.
Across the country, 120 million census forms have been sent out.
Census statistics are used to determine representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and levels of federal funding for infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, emergency services and other public works projects.
In the last census, in 2000, Box Elder and Cache counties led the Top of Utah with 79 percent participation rates, the percentage of houses that responded to the written questionnaire.
Davis and Morgan counties were close behind at 78 percent.
Weber County checked in at 74 percent, just above the national average of 72 percent and the state average of 71 percent.
Rich County, however, had a mere 22 percent participation rate.
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