As required by Oregon administrative rules, all city annexations that result in a change of population must be certified by the Population Research Center. In practice, the certification for populations less than 125 housing units involved a count of housing units and people that is conducted by city officials and reviewed by Population Research Center staff. If the annexation is large and involves more than 125 housing units, city officials should contact the Population Research Center as soon as possible. Population Research Center welcomes the opportunity to work with city officials so that the annexation certification can be accomplished promptly.

The count of people in a large annexation can be conducted through either enumeration or special survey. Although the city is responsible for costs of the enumeration or survey, Population Research Center staff will work with city officials to design a count that is as cost effective as possible.

In a recent large annexation, Bend city officials and Population Research Center staff worked together to design a cost effective count of all housing units in the annexed area. This resulted in the prompt certification of more than 13,000 people in the newly annexed area. Because of effective planning and enumeration, the annexation was certified to Oregon’s Secretary of State of the very date of annexation, resulting in immediate payment of tax revenues for the City of Bend.