The 2020 census showed that Anson County lost 18.2% of its population.
                                 Contributed photo

The 2020 census showed that Anson County lost 18.2% of its population.

Contributed photo

WADESBORO — The Anson County Board of Commissioners this month voted to start the process of challenging the 2020 Census results due to their disbelief in how many people apparently left the county over the past 10 years.

The Census found that Anson County’s population dropped from 26,948 to 22,055. Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood said this loss of 4,898 people or 18.2% of the population was the largest decline since 1790. This decline was significantly larger than anticipated.

“This shows that we have lost a considerable amount of people and it’s really hard for me to believe we lost [that much] of our population,” said Vice Chair Dr. Jim Sims.

The Census indicated that North Carolina had the sixth largest population gain in the country, making it the 9th largest state. But it also showed that North Carolina had the slowest rate of growth since the Civil War. Only 32 counties were expected to decrease in total population but instead, 51 rural counties did.

The next steps are to start the investigation process. Challenges can be made between January 2022 and June 2023 by the highest elected official of the jurisdiction or their designee. Challenges must be made through the Count Question Resolution (CQR) process and there must be evidence-based on a Boundary Challenge, a Geocoding Challenge, or a Coverage Challenge. Challenges may be difficult because of the Disclosure Avoidance System (DAS) which protects individuals’ privacy rights in the Census. The DAS inserts noise into data results to prevent the identification of responders. Other factors to loss must be also considered including misrepresentation of numbers if less people completed the census and the covid-19 deaths.

Commissioners will update the public as things progress.