We have suffered a series of crises in Puerto Rico, resulting from natural disasters which, when combined with the inconsistency of the government, ended up with serious consequences. However, low participation in the 2020 Census leads us to an unnecessary crisis we seem to be creating by ourselves.

Until several weeks ago, according to El Nuevo Día, only 17 percent of citizens had filled out the form. There were one or two municipalities that did not even reach that number: no one had responded.

Recent weeks show little progress, and the response rate is still very low at this time when there are only a few months left before delivering final data- in December - to the U.S. President and Congress.

The census began on January 21 in remote communities or states such as Alaska. In March, they began to send the forms to households. We recognize that this stage coincided with the strongest and most uncertain period regarding COVID-19 when most households were getting ready to comply with the curfew and social distancing measures. In many people's minds, there was no place for anything other than the pandemic, and few took the envelope to the post or answered the questionnaire online.

It is now July. Over the next few weeks, census takers - who are not so many, given the current restrictions - will try to ensure that prisons, housing projects, nursing homes, and other facilities that host groups of people have complied with the law. In a final effort, during September and October, they will try to reach those households that have not responded. This is a difficult task for these employees who often face safety problems, or simply they are rejected by residents who refuse to open the door out of fear.

The best thing is to fill out the form sent to every household. However, it seems that too many citizens have ignored the little white envelope they have left on their doorstep, and in many cases, they did not even keep it.

It seems that they are not aware of what is at stake.

We have previously stressed the need for us to be efficiently counted, including those who do not have legal residency status in the United States. No one should be afraid. The confidentiality of the data is guaranteed by law, and it provides for fines and imprisonment for those who use the information for purposes other than statistical analysis. This is an analysis that will provide a better understanding of our social composition, our economic reality, and the challenges of an aging population. The planning of almost everything depends on our responses.

Amid an election campaign, political candidates should take advantage of every moment to stress the need to fill out the Census. We do not have to spend millions to call to participate in this process in which we are lagging behind.

We need to know how many we are, what we need, where, and how we live. The urgency to make citizens interested in complying with the Census is not a whim of a government or a concession we make to any party. Filling it out is the main responsibility of citizens, considering that different aspects of our daily life will be severely affected if we do not know with certainty how many and how we really are.