Meetings to prepare Warren County for the 2010 Census could begin next month when a Complete Count Committee is formed as part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s decennial tally.

Already under way in Jackson and in larger cities nationwide, efforts are just beginning in west-central and southwest Mississippi counties, Census Bureau Partnership Specialist Kelvin Rankin told Warren County supervisors Thursday.

Locally, up to 20 people from various walks of life will be chosen by Vicksburg and Warren County officials, Rankin said. Plans are for a panel to be in place in March, though the deadline is flexible, he added.

Census counts have been taken every 10 years in the United States since 1790. Shifts can dictate states’ representation in Congress. Local governments have a keen interest because of the counts’ effects on federal funding for items such as infrastructure and social programs.

Unlike the 2000 Census and ones before it, beset by problems in many states with a “long form” survey on detailed socioeconomic issues, the 2010 count will involve a shorter survey in residential maiboxes — asking a person’s name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship and housing tenure.

Surveys will be sent by the third week in March 2010, Rankin said, with the first returns a month later.

“We just need to remind people of the importance of it,” Board President Richard George said. “Just fill the thing out and send it back.”

Rankin said Warren County’s return rate in 2000 was nearly equal to the statewide 63 percent rate. One percentage he expects to grow is that of the countywide Hispanic population, which stood at 1.04 percent in the last Census and 1.4 percent in a 2007 estimate.

“We’ll have a significant Hispanic population in Warren County,” Rankin said, adding efforts will be made to reflect that in the Complete Count Committee membership.

Mississippi lost a U.S. House seat in the 2000 Census. The state’s population stood at just more than 2.9 million in recent estimates.

Warren County had 49,644 citizens in 2000, which was up nearly 2,000 from 1990. Slight drops have been recorded in bureau estimates since then, most recently at 48,866 in 2007. Inside Vicksburg, the count was 26,407 in 2000, up nearly 5,500 from 1990. The 2007 estimate had the municipal population at 25,454.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.