Census 2020 U.S. Virgin Islands Completes Data Collection

St. Croix Census Manager Lorna Williams-Sutton participates in an online session. (Screenshot)

As a result of participation by thousands of Virgin Islanders, census 2020 U.S. Virgin Islands has completed data collection. The effort of hundreds of Virgin Islands field and office census workers is done.

Questionnaires completed by U.S. Virgin Islands census 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 is being processed and will become part of the statistical record of the territory.

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 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 Frank Mills, Ph.D. “I want to commend the census 2020 staff throughout the territory on a job well done.” Mills, who have 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 offices on St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John by mid-December. They are appreciative of the guidance of U.S. Census Bureau Advisors Tomás Encarnacion, Ph.D. and Daniel Doyle, who supervised territorial data collection and who will return to their U.S. Census Bureau offices outside of Washington, D.C.

Census workers are wearing royal blue shirts and bright yellow vests, with an ID on a lanyard. (Submitted photo)
Census workers are wearing royal blue shirts and bright yellow vests, with an ID on a lanyard. (Submitted photo)

“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.”

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 2020 census staff of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Despite national and local shutdowns and the adoption of mandated public health and safety protocols, the staff worked with one goal in mind: to count every person once and in the right place.

For census updates, contact the U.S. Census Bureau’s Public Information Office at 1-800-923-8282 or visit www.ask.census.gov.