Erving gets perfect score on Census

The Franklin County town of Erving earned an unusual distinction from the U.S. Census Bureau: the highest possible response rate for the Census forms that the federal government sent out in April.

Every resident in the town of roughly 1,500 people who received the Census form filled it out and mailed it back.

Many rural towns exceeded the state’s average response rate of 73 percent, according to the Census Bureau website. But the only other municipality in Massachusetts to exceed a 90 percent response rate was Northfield, Erving’s neighbor.

Erving’s perfect score appears to reflect past difficulties in being accurately counted.

Until the late 1990s Erving had two zip codes, one of which it shared with neighboring Montague, according to Jacquelyn Boyden, the town’s assistant assessor. Even after the U.S. Postal Service dropped the second zip code, mail from the federal government would often end up being addressed to Millers Falls or Turners Falls, both villages in Montague.

Boyden said the town almost certainly lost out on federal money it was entitled to following the 2000 Census because some survey forms had incorrect addresses. As this year’s census approached, local officials stressed the importance of achieving a high return rate.

When correspondence from the Census Bureau began arriving this spring, however, it was clear that the problem with the Postal Service had not been fully resolved.

“I was one of the people whose form said that my address was Turners Falls,” Boyden said. “I went to the selectmen’s office and said, ‘What is this? I don’t live anywhere near Turners Falls.’”

Boyden and other residents whose forms suggested they did not reside in Erving ended up having to fill out the forms twice – first to make clear that the initial mailing address was incorrect, and then to file the correct version.

To view participation rates for Massachusetts cities and towns online, visit 2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map.