Is it time to rethink the census and other surveys that measure changes in the population of the United States?
Legislators and demographers have asked that question since results released this month by the Census Bureau showed that Black, Hispanic, Native and other minority residents were undercounted in 2020 compared to the previous decade.
On top of that, the results of a wide-ranging survey comparing year-on-year changes in Americans' lives had to be discarded because disruptions caused by the pandemic produced fewer responses in 2020.
“The current model of building a master address list, sending an invitation to everyone — like inviting people to a party and expecting them to respond, and if not, going to get them — I think it's an outdated system,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO Educational Fund, a nonprofit nonprofit organization that supports the political participation of Hispanics.
The count deficits in the 2020 census were attributed to the pandemic, natural disasters, and political interference by then-President Donald Trump's administration, but the fact that racial and ethnic minorities falling below the counts is nothing new in the census; this has been persistent for decades.
In recent years, the cost of censuses and surveys has increased, while public participation rates in polls have decreased. The bureau's largest inter-census effort to measure the country's population, the American Community Survey, produces 11 billion statistics from interviews with 3.5 million households each year, and the decennial census counts each inhabitant to distribute federal funds and congressional seats among states, as well and to redesign political districts.
“What we have today largely remains a statistical system focused on 20th century surveys,” said Ron Jarmin, chief operating officer of the Census Bureau, in December, when he was acting director of the agency.
The Census Bureau is already developing new ways to collect data. One of them is the Marcos Programme, which would combine all types of data, including administrative records from the private sector and government agencies, as well as surveys and censuses.
In 2030, when the next census takes place, the program could help count people with good administrative records or links to other records, and more resources could be devoted to households that are more difficult to count, Census Bureau Director Robert Santos said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.