College Plans Among Top Worries In Washington: COVID-19 Survey

WASHINGTON — There are a lot of reasons to be worried during the coronavirus pandemic: job loss and financial insecurity, food scarcity, not to mention the fear of catching the disease itself. But as it turns out, one of the things Washington is most worried about, is how pandemic restrictions have changed their plans for higher education.

This was among several findings collected through phase two of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, an initiative led by the bureau and other federal agencies to collect real-time data on how people’s lives have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The invitation-only survey measures how people are experiencing business restrictions and closures, stay-at-home orders, school closures, changes in the availability of consumer goods and patterns, and other abrupt and significant changes to American life.

The purpose of it, according to the bureau’s website, is to help plan the ongoing federal response to the pandemic.

The first phase of the survey asked people about their experiences with employment status, food security, housing, physical and mental health, access to health care, and educational disruption.

The second phase of the survey, which collected data between Aug. 19 and Oct. 24, carried over several questions from phase one and focused on questions about receiving unemployment and Social Security benefits, spending patterns, financial security, working from home, and more.

Here are some other findings based on phase two responses from Washington residents:

• 21.3 percent of adults expect someone in their household to lose employment income in the next four weeks.
• 41.6 percent of households have at least one adult who has substituted some or all of their typical in-person work for telework because of the coronavirus pandemic.
• 8.4 percent of respondents said there was either sometimes not enough to eat in the last seven days.
• 4.8 percent said they were not current on rent or mortgage payments, or have little or no confidence their household can pay next month’s rent or mortgage on time.
• 28.9 percent of the above said that an eviction or foreclosure in the next two months is either very likely or somewhat likely.
• 27.9 percent said they were struggling to pay for usual household expenses during the coronavirus pandemic.
• 87.8 percent of respondents said they or someone in their family was going to take post-secondary classes, like college level courses, but their plans have either been canceled or changed in some significant way.

The Census Bureau plans to start releasing phase three findings on Nov. 18. For the final phase, no changes were made to survey questions.

See current data for all states here. Past data collected during phase one and two is also available on the Census Bureau’s website.