Census forms should be arrive in mailboxes this week. Some local residents, already angered by what they consider the federal government’s excessive influence on their lives, will be tempted to tear it up and toss it.

They should reconsider.

Information gathered in the decennial census is used for a multitude of purposes. It provides a snapshot of the real state of the nation: who lives here and how we live, how much money we make and how we earn it. Individual responses are confidential, but the statistical compilations are public information, available to support all kinds of decision-making processes. Business owners use them in marketing decisions; planners use them in making projections for the future; individuals use them in deciding where they want to live, work and raise their children.

Governmental agencies utilize census information in disseminating funds, and an accurate count is vital in ensuring rural areas get their fair share. In terms of the population of the United States, Montezuma County isn’t even a blip on the radar screen, but we have some special characteristics that do make a difference.

One of the most important is the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Native Americans are traditionally one of the most undercounted segments of the population, for various reasons. Distrust of the government is one, but difficulties in locating reservation dwellers is another. It’s difficult to count people census takers cannot find or of whose existence census personnel are unaware.

The same difficulty holds true for other rural residents. Houses are tucked away on unmaintained roads; addresses don’t always reflect directions accurately, and people can be just plain hard to find. If they don’t make an effort to be included in the census count, they may not be, and Montezuma County may come up short.

Another point we shouldn’t forget is how dependent Montezuma County is on the federal government. Two-thirds of our land is public land, off the tax roles. Many of our jobs are government jobs. Others depend on being able to do business on federal lands. That’s not a typical situation across most of the United States, and it’s difficult to derive from columns of numbers, but it’s a very important fact of life here.

Census data helps determine the flow of federal dollars for such services as health care, education, transportation, support for small businesses. It also determines governmental representation based on apportionment. Areas that are growing in population may gain voices. Areas experiencing a decline may lose.

Areas from which population is underreported may lose as well, in both dollars and influence, and there’s no reason for that to happen. Like it or not, federal money is an essential part of our economy, and it comes with strings attached. One of those strings requires that we report our existence to the government, which, make no mistake, already knows far more about us than the census form requests we report.