SMETHPORT — As of Monday, 27,256 county residents had been counted in the 2020 Census, according to a report County Commissioner Carol Duffy presented Tuesday at the commissioners’ meeting.

With that number, McKean County ranks third in response rates in the six-county North Central region of Pennsylvania, behind Elk and Clearfield.

“The municipalities with the highest rate of returns are Bradford Township, 76 percent; Wetmore Township, 73 percent; and Foster Township, 72 percent. Bradford City’s response rate was 57 percent,” Duffy noted.

Those municipalities with the lowest rates of response were Sergeant Township, 17 percent; Norwich Township, 28 percent; and Hamilton Township, 30 percent.

The McKean County Complete Census Committee will award a monetary prize to the top two municipalities in terms of response rates.

“If anyone has not yet received an invitation to complete the Census either in the mail or by materials left at their residence, the Census Bureau does not recognize that anyone lives there,” Duffy said. “Those individuals should complete the Census online at 2020census.gov or by phone at 1-844-330-2020.”

Enumerators will begin visiting residents who have not completed the Census in mid-August and will come up to six different times in attempts to count those people, according to Duffy.

In the past, the Census results have been used to determine representatives in Congress and policymakers have used that data for making decisions in health care and other critical areas.

In her remarks, Duffy noted, “McKean County potentially loses $2,100 annually in federal funding for every person who is not counted over the ten-year life of the Census.”