WASHINGTON — According to estimates taken from a report by the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2020 census underestimated Black, Latino, and Indigenous populations, while overcounting whites and Asians, according to WASHINGTON’s Census Bureau.
These findings are the latest in a long-running struggle by the bureau to count underrepresented groups while simultaneously over-counting non–Hispanic whites. Many of them reside in remote areas such as rural communities or areas with limited internet access.
Two internal analyses were performed to produce the data that was released on Thursday. The first was a sample survey of demographic records. The 2020 census did not include Hispanics or Latinos at a rate that was three times higher than in 2010. This is a rate that was roughly five percent lower than the 1.5 percent rate in 2010.
Blacks were undercounted at a rate 3.3 percent, compared to 2.1 percent in 2010. The 2010 rate of 4.9% was higher for Indigenous people who live on reservations. This rate was 5.6 percent lower than 2010. Non-indigenous people who live on reservations were not miscounted.
In-person door-knocking operations were stopped in March 2020 due to the pandemic. They were only restarted in late summer. Inaccurate and improperly processed data could mean that many vulnerable groups could still have been left out, altering their access to resources and power.
The Supreme Court granted the Trump administration permission to cease collecting census data early in 2020. The bureau claimed it wanted to stop the count to allow it to start processing the data in time to meet the Dec. 31 deadline set by federal law for reporting the results to President Trump and the states.
The sample survey data also indicated that the non-Hispanic white population, as well as the Asian population, were both over-counted. Furthermore the statistically significant difference in over-counting between 2010-2020 was statistically significant.
The bureau’s data shows the racial composition of America. It helps to determine how federal aid is distributed and how many seats in Congress and Electoral College votes each state receives, among other things.