Thursday, July 30, 2020

Census response rates in communities of color

From Headwaters:

The results of the census are important because they determine political representation and allocation of federal funding, but people are being undercounted. Residents are more likely to be undercounted if they are hard to find in dense urban or remote rural areas, are experiencing homelessness, have technological or language barriers, or mistrust the government and don’t want to participate.

The 2020 Census is complicated by the coronavirus pandemic. In-person visits by census workers have been delayed. Many hard-to-count groups are also those who suffer more severe health and economic impacts from coronavirus.

A disproportionate number of those who are not counted are people of color: Asian-Americans, Blacks, Hispanics or Latinos, and Native Americans.

Every 10 years the U.S. Census Bureau attempts to count the U.S. population. The results determine policymaking and planning for the following decade, including:

Distribution of federal tax dollars for health, education, housing, and infrastructure programs. These include Medicaid, the National School Lunch Program, Head Start, special education grants, and highway construction.
Planning for new hospitals, schools, and roads.
Disaster response.
The number of congresspeople that a state can send to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The number of Electoral College votes for each state.
Boundaries for state and local voting districts.

Here's the sample form.

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