COVID-19. A hyperactive hurricane season. Record-breaking western wildfires. Summertime civil unrest.

These were the four major challenges facing the 2020 census data collection, which came to a close Oct. 15.

And yet, data collection this year is on par with many collection statistics from the 2010 census.

In a Wednesday news conference, representatives from the U.S. Census Bureau applauded the efforts of citizens, bureau staff and the 528,500 people hired this year for the census process.

“Data collection was completed in an extremely challenging environment,” said Albert Fontenot, Jr., associate director for Decennial Programs with the bureau, during the conference.

Specifically, Fontenot said 152 million addresses were resolved by Oct. 15, resulting in a national resolution rate of 99.99%. This is comparable to the roughly 130 million addresses — or 99.8% — resolved in 2010.

Read more in Thursday's Butler Eagle.