The country’s Hispanic, Black, and Native American residents were significantly undercounted during the 2020 national census, officials confirmed Thursday.
According to report published by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hispanic population had a net undercount of nearly 5 percent, which was three times higher than the estimated undercount in the 2010 census. The Black population had an undercount of 3.3 percent, while Native Americans living on reservations had an undercount of 5.6 percent. Citing the post-enumeration survey, officials estimate that about 0.24 percent of the U.S. population was missed in the census, which is the basis for federal funding as well as political representation.
The Census Bureau director Robert Santos addressed the findings during a webinar conference on Thursday, when he highlighted several factors that may have led to the undercounts. Santos pointed to the global pandemic, which stalled the bureau’s door-to-door operations and made residents much more hesitant to speak to census takers. He also theorized that Latino communities were reluctant to participant, as the Trump administration proposed asking respondents to confirm their citizenship status.
“As you can imagine, we are just terribly – I can’t even find the word right now – upset about the extent of the Latino undercount,” Arturo Vargas, CEO of NALEO Educational Fund, said during the conference. “These numbers are devastating. Once again, we see an overcount of white Americans and an undercount of Black and Hispanic Americans.”
But not every population was undercounted. According to the bureau, non-Hispanic white people had a net overcount of 1.6 percent, while Asians had an overcount of 2.6 percent.
Officials said the estimates will not change the 2020 population count of 331.4 million people. More detailed, state-level reports are expected to be released in the summer.
