NYC Census 2020 Announces Winner of Last Week's Census Subway Series: Midwood, Brooklyn vs. Upper East Side, Manhattan

New York — On Wednesday, September 9, NYC Census 2020 announced the winner of the second "NYC Census Subway Series", which matched Midwood, Brooklyn with Upper East Side, Manhattan, to see which neighborhood would register the higher increase in its census self-response rate between August 31st and September 8th, following President Trump's move to cut the census short by one month. NYC Census Director Julie Menin and Executive Assistant Corporation Counsel, NYC Law Department released the following statement:

"With a big weekend push, Midwood has triumphed over the Upper East Side in the battle of the Q train, registering a 1.9 percentage-point increase, as compared to the 1.4 percentage-point increase registered by the Upper East Side. While Midwood came out on top, the entire city has benefitted from this competition, which has resulted in more than 1,000 additional households in just these two neighborhoods completing the census.  We need every single New Yorker to complete the census before September 30th, to protect our power in Congress and get our fair share of billions in federal funding this decade.”

Midwood began the competition with a 55.4% self-response rate and rose to 57.3%, an increase of 1.9 percentage points (approximately 620 households). The Upper East Side started at 49.8% and reached 51.2%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points (approximately 520 households). 

The Census Subway Series is a five-week challenge in which two neighborhoods from different boroughs will compete against each other to see which neighborhood posts the largest gains in its self-response rate over the week. The victor of the first match was declared on Monday, August 31, with Jamaica just edging out Canarsie. Week 3 of our Census Subway Series pitts Brownsville, Brooklyn (current self-response rate: 55.5%) against Wakefield, The Bronx (current self-response rate: 51.0%).

In addition to bragging rights, residents of the competing neighborhoods -- as well as any New Yorker who completes the census during the next five weeks -- may be eligible to win exciting prizes from Seamless, Lyft, and MoMA as part of the new NYC Counts census contest. Any New Yorker who completes the census between Monday, August 17 and Monday, September 21 can enter the contest to win one or more of the following prizes:

• $1,000 gift card from Seamless (six total)
• A $50 Lyft credit voucher and annual CitiBike membership (100 total)
• An annual membership to The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 (a $200 value; 25 total)

All New Yorkers must take a photo of their census completion confirmation page and upload it to the City's website to enter. Complete rules can be found at nyc.gov/censuscontest.

As of September 8, 2020, New York City's overall self-response rate is 58.8%, and the nation's is 65.5%. As of this date, New York City has already aggressively slashed the 2010 self-response rate gap between itself and nation by more than half, and continues to make notable progress on narrowing this gap every day (the gap is now 6.7 percentage points, compared to approximately 14 points in 2010). 

About NYC Census 2020

NYC Census 2020 is a first-of-its-kind organizing initiative established by Mayor de Blasio in January 2019 to ensure a complete and accurate count of all New Yorkers in the 2020 Census. The $40 million program is built on four pillars: (1) a $19 million community-based awards program, The New York City Complete Count Fund, empowering 157 community-based organizations to engage historically undercounted communities around the 2020 Census; (2) an in-house "Get Out the Count" field campaign supported by the smart use of cutting-edge data and organizing technology, and a volunteer organizing program to promote a complete count in each of the city's 245 neighborhoods; (3) an innovative, multilingual, tailored messaging and marketing campaign, including a $3 million commitment to investing in community and ethnic media to reach every New York City community; as well as (4) an in-depth Agency and Partnerships engagement plan that seeks to leverage the power of the City's 350,000-strong workforce and the city's major institutions, including libraries, hospitals, faith-based communities, cultural institutions, higher educational institutions, and more, to communicate with New Yorkers about the critical importance of census participation. Through close partnerships with trusted leaders and organizations across the five boroughs, this unprecedented campaign represents the largest municipal investment in census organizing nationwide and will build an enduring structure that empowers New Yorkers to remain civically engaged.