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.

“More than half the country ... responded to data collection on their own,” said Michael Cook Sr., chief of the bureau's public information office.

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.

Aside from the traditional means of self-response data collection via phone or mail, the bureau this year also employed an online option.

The cyber response was largely preferred by Americans, according to Fontenot.

Of more than 99 million Americans who self-responded to the census, more than 79 million responded online. About 18 million responded using the paper option, and around 1.8 million responded by phone.

Altogether, the 2020 self-response rate is about 67%, according to Fontenot. In 2010, the self-response rate was 66.5%.

The bureau's live 2020 self-response map suggests the cyber trend was no different in Butler County.

Butler's self-response rate of 76.2% is the highest of all Western Pennsylvania counties by roughly 3%. Of self-responding households in Butler County, 62.4% responded online.

In 2010, Butler County had a self-response rate of 73.8%.

Butler County is home to the Cranberry Township Area Census Office, one of nine area census offices in Pennsylvania.

Technology has a lot to do with the level of success the 2020 census has achieved so far, according to Fontenot. Unlike past censuses, computers this year helped enumerators work within tight and changing deadlines.

It's also expected to help the bureau conduct data processing in 2½ months. Originally, this was a four- to five-month process.

“Conducting a census is always challenging,” said Tim Olson, associate director of field operations, in the news conference. “The 2020 Census had to adapt.”

Data from the census by law must be presented to the president of the United States by Dec. 31 in the year of the census. The bureau is still working toward that date.

Still, bureau officials were careful Wednesday to say the bureau hopes “to come as close as possible” to the deadline.

Despite streamlining apportionment and optimizing staff time, additional days may be needed for an accurate report.

The bureau doesn't have a hard-stop date at this time, according to officials Wednesday. “The census is not over,” Fontenot said. “We have much work to do.”