In this screen shot of a YouTube video, Lawrence Mayor Jennifer Ananda accepts a challenge from the mayor of Manhattan regarding census response rates.

Even though sporting events have been canceled because of the coronavirus, Lawrence residents still can get in the competitive spirit.

Mayor Jennifer Ananda recently accepted a challenge from the mayor of Manhattan for the two cities to compete for the highest self-response rate to the 2020 census for each city. The mayor of the losing city has to wear the other city’s university jersey to a City Commission meeting. Mayor Usha Reddi made a video challenging Ananda, who responded with a video of her own in which she accepted the challenge.

Ananda told the Journal-World that she hoped the challenge would provide a cause for the community to rally around amid the pandemic and the social distancing and economic insecurity it has caused.

“I think we all need something that has a little levity right now, given everything that’s happening,” Ananda said.

The U.S. Census counts everyone in the United States, whether citizens or noncitizens, and is conducted every 10 years. Information that individuals provide to the census is confidential.

Ananda emphasized that it’s important to get an accurate population count because it affects the city’s funding levels. The federal government allocates more than $675 billion to states and communities based on census data, and it’s estimated that a community loses out on $53,000 in federal funding over the 10-year census period for every person missed in the census, according to census information on the city’s website.

Census data drives funding for a variety of initiatives, including funding for highways, local transit, school lunch programs, Head Start programs, nutrition programs and Community Development Block Grants, among others. An accurate count also ensures proportional representation at higher levels of government, as census data is used to determine how many seats each state is allocated in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As university communities, both Lawrence and Manhattan also want to ensure that their students are counted. Whether students are living on or off campus, they should be counted as residents of the city. That means University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University students are counted as Lawrence residents even if they visit home on holidays and breaks or, in this case, are at home due to the coronavirus outbreak. The census website states that people, including college students, who are living with parents or others temporarily due to COVID-19 should be counted where they ordinarily would be living on April 1, 2020.

For the challenge, Lawrence and Manhattan are competing to see which city can have the highest self-response rate, meaning that residents respond without having to meet a census taker, either online, by mail or by phone, by May 15. Ananda said this was especially important during the pandemic, when people should be practicing social distancing. As of Wednesday, the most recent data available, Lawrence’s self-response rate was 55.4% and Manhattan’s self-response rate was 53.5%, according to the census website. The national self-response rate is currently 49.4%.

Ananda said she had faith in the Lawrence community to rise to the challenge. She said that having to wear a K-State jersey to a City Commission meeting would be humiliating and that it was up to the residents of Lawrence to make sure that didn’t happen.

“I’m relying on our community and our community pride, as who we are as Jayhawks, to stand up and be counted,” Ananda said.

Residents can respond to the census online at 2020Census.gov or by calling 844-330-2020. The 2020 Census questionnaire takes about 10 minutes to complete.