2020 U.S. Census Count
By
Sherri Blevins
2019 is starting its eighth month with 2020 just around the corner. With the new year, comes the 2020 U.S. Census count. 2020 will be the 24th decennial (ten-year) counting of the American population. It will be the latest in a constitutionally mandated tradition that has its roots in 1790.
Earlier,
during the colonial period, the British government, anxious about the reach of
the population growth and economic rewards that could benefit the British
Crown, began the population census in its American colonies from the early
1600s to the revolution. The early forms
asked for age, sex, race, and sometimes family and household.
The
counting process has progressed since the colonial days. The Census Bureau adds new technology to the
counting process in 2020 by allowing residents to complete questionnaires
online, and it will rely heavily on aerial photography to verify addresses
rather than the traditional door-to-door method. Follow up visits for those individuals not
completing the online forms or mailing in census forms, will still be door-to-door
to obtain as accurate a count as possible.
Obtaining
a correct count of people living in the U.S. is vital because of several uses
of the census. The government uses
census data in reapportioning congressional seats and seats in the U.S. House
of Representatives. The information is
also used to determine federal agency allocation of billions of dollars of
federal funds to states and localities. Underreporting could result in the loss
of federal funding for needy states. Often,
business decisions about locating workplaces and projecting product demand are
made based on data from the census. The
education world uses census data for academic research on trends in family
structure and living arrangements, migration, and the racial/ethnic composition
of the population. State and local
governments use the information in making decisions concerning the location of
neighborhood services and schools.
Even
though most Americans realize the importance of the census count, several
agencies warn of possible shortcomings of the new technology used in the 2020
data collection. In an article by Andrea
Noble, staff writer for Route Fifty, Robert Goldenkoff, director of strategic
issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office stated, “These innovations
show promise for controlling costs, but they also introduce new risks in part
because they have not been tested extensively, if at all, in earlier
enumerations. Without sufficient testing
across a range of geographic locations, housing types, living arrangements, and
demographic groups, operational problems can go undiscovered, and the
opportunities to refine procedures and systems could be lost.
The
Census Bureau has estimated the cost of the 2020 census at $15.6 billion over
the ten-year cycle that began with planning in 2013 and will end with reports
in 2023. Even though the government is spending a vast amount of money for the
project, several experts have raised additional concerns, and some have warned
of an impending disaster. The factors
contributing to their sense of alarm are distrust of the federal government and
the push to include citizenship on the census, computing system
vulnerabilities, funding shortfalls that impeded innovation, and the
introduction of new privacy protection techniques for important data products.
Despite the possible shortcomings and concerns raised by experts in the field of data collection, citizens must complete the census questionnaires. Without accurate counts in the 2020 United States Census count, our county and potentially our state will lose much needed federal funds.
2020 U.S. Census Count
