Census Update: Language Barriers in Alaska

As the Census Listers work their way through Alaska, the largest barrier to an accurate count is linguistic differences between rural and native populations. To ensure a complete and accurate count, the Census Bureau has worked for several months with local organizers to create public service announcements and translate census guides into four Alaskan Native languages. Still, many Native Alaskan villages speak one of 20 different native languages.

“We felt it was critical to have the information available in the languages of the state,” said Erin Willahan, a consultant hired by Alaska Public Interest Research Group (AKPIRG) to support local census efforts.

This year, targeted campaigns in these designated “hard to count” communities included inviting elders and local leaders to work on their own translations and public service announcements. Over the course of a week in December, a group of more than 20 people worked to create translations in Yup’ik, Inupiaq, Gwich’in and Koyukon Athabascan. The Census has also focused efforts on door-to-door counting rather than mail or online counting to ensure any mistranslations are addressed in-person with a community representative present.

According to the bureau, this is the first time such extensive translation has been available due to the wide community networks working hand in hand with Census Listers in the area.