Census Bureau wants to test asking about sexual orientation and gender identity on biggest survey
The U.S. Census Bureau is asking the Biden administration for permission to test questions about sexual orientation and gender identity for people age 15 and above on its most comprehensive annual survey of life in the country.
U.S. census and other surveys likely undercount the number of LGBTQ+ people living in Texas
Some queer Texans may fear disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity to neighbors or the government. The lack of accurate numbers makes it more difficult to provide appropriate health care, especially in rural areas.
Most populous US states and city ask for census corrections over misplaced ship and missed students
A misplaced naval ship in California, overlooked students in New York City and missed inmates in Texas are some of the reasons that the two most populous states and the largest city in the U.S. have filed last-minute 2020 census corrections requests.
Chance to challenge 2020 census numbers is ending, with funding for states and cities at stake
The window for local, state and tribal governments to challenge their 2020 census figures closes after Friday, and with it the opportunity to correct mistakes in population totals that could cost them millions of dollars in federal funding.
Census Bureau tables controversial privacy tool for survey
The U.S. Census Bureau is putting on hold plans to apply by 2025 a controversial method for protecting the privacy of participants in its most comprehensive survey of Americans after facing pushback from prominent researchers and demographers.
Hispanic Texans may now be the stateโs largest demographic group, new census data shows
For years, the stateโs Hispanic population has grown significantly faster than the white population. The new census data is the first to reflect Texas passing a milestone in its cultural and political evolution.
Bill attempts to prevent political meddling in US head count
A U.S. Census Bureau director couldnโt be fired without cause and new questions to a census form would have to be vetted by Congress under proposed legislation that attempts to prevent in the future the type of political interference into the nationโs head count that took place during the Trump administration.
New Census director has faith in quality of 2020 numbers
The new U.S. Census Bureau director says he is listening to the concerns of data users and policymakers, and the agency is making permanent community outreach efforts, in an effort to restore any trust that was lost following attempts by the Trump administration to politicize the nationโs head count.
Researchers worry about Census' gap in 2020 survey data
Researchers are worried about coronavirus-related disruptions to one of the U.S. Census Bureauโs most important surveys about how Americans live, saying a gap in the 2020 data will make it more difficult to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and measure year-to-year changes.
People of color make up 95% of Texasโ population growth, and cities and suburbs are booming, 2020 census shows
The stateโs Hispanic population is now nearly as large as the non-Hispanic white population, with Texas gaining nearly 11 Hispanic residents for every additional white resident since 2010. Those trends set up a pitched battle for political control when state lawmakers redraw legislative districts.
Biden picks first person of color to head Census fulltime
President Joe Biden says he'll pick the president of the American Statistical Association to lead the U.S. Census Bureau as it works toward releasing data from the 2020 census that will be used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts.
Federal judge nixes Ohio's push for early redistricting data
U.S. District Judge Thomas Rose in Dayton, Ohio, rejected the stateโs request for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the Census Bureau to release the redistricting data by March 31. Ohio filed its lawsuit last month after the Census Bureau said the redistricting data wouldnโt be available until September, months after the redistricting deadlines for many states. Posing the first challenge to the bureau's revised deadline on redistricting data, the lawsuit said the delay will undermine Ohioโs process of redrawing districts. The redistricting data includes counts of population by race, Hispanic origin, voting age and housing occupancy status at geographic levels as small as neighborhoods. AdThe delay in releasing the redistricting data has sent states scrambling to come up with alternative plans.
Homeschooling doubled from pandemicโs start to last fall
The rate of households homeschooling their children doubled from the start of the pandemic last spring to the start of the new school year last September, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report released this week. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)ORLANDO, Fla. โ The rate of households homeschooling their children doubled from the start of the pandemic last spring to the start of the new school year last September, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report released this week. Last spring, about 5.4% of all U.S. households with school-aged children were homeschooling them, but that figure rose to 11% by last fall, according to the bureau's Household Pulse Survey. Black households saw the largest jump in rates of homeschooling, going from 3.3% in the spring to 16.1% in the fall. Even Massachusetts, which has some of the nation's best public schools, went from 1.5% of households to 12.1% of households with school-aged children homeschooling.
Lawmakers frustrated over delay in Census redistricting data
FILE - This March 19, 2020, file photo, shows a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident. At a hearing of the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, Republican lawmakers told acting Census Bureau director Ron Jarmin that the delay was upending their states' redistricting plans. The state of Alabama also has sued the Census Bureau in an effort to force it to release the redistricting data early. โThat meant some of the work we would have started for the redistricting data was set aside for later. The acting Census Bureau director also said the cost of executing the 2020 census would be under its $15.6 billion budget.
Redistricting data may be ready a month early, in old format
FILE - This March 19, 2020, file photo, shows a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident. The availability of the redistricting data in the outdated format in August was first disclosed last week in a statement by a Census Bureau official in the Ohio lawsuit. One of the reasons the extra time was needed for the redistricting data is that the Census Bureau originally had prioritized tasks to get the apportionment numbers finished, pushing back work on the redistricting data, Fontenot said. AdThe Census Bureau is working with outside experts to evaluate the quality of the 2020 census data given the challenges, and two statistical programmers have begun analyzing the data, the American Statistical Association said Thursday. A saving grace of the 2020 census was new technology, said Ron Jarmin acting Census Bureau director.
Cities, groups aim to stop Ohio's push for early census data
FILE - This March 19, 2020, file photo, shows a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)A coalition of cities, counties and civil rights groups sued the U.S. Census Bureau last year to stop it from ending the 2020 census early out of fear a premature finish would undercount minority communities. The census data are used not only to determine congressional seats and Electoral College votes but also the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year. The state of Alabama also has sued the Census Bureau in an effort to get it to release the redistricting data by March 31. Alabama's lawsuit also takes aim at a new method the Census Bureau is using to protect the privacy of participants in the 2020 census, arguing that it produces faulty numbers.
Alabama sues to stop redistricting delay, privacy initiative
It also asks the court to stop the statistical agency from using a new method for protecting participants' privacy, which the state argues produces faulty numbers. Census numbers are also used for the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal funding each year for things like highways and schools. The Alabama lawsuit takes on a new privacy protection technique known as differential privacy. For example, the suit contends that in sample data the Census Bureau released, it appeared to erase the Black voting-age populations in 60 communities in Alabama. AdThe Census Bureau says it is still hammering out the details, but bureau officials have said previously they are trying to find โthe sweet spotโ between data confidentiality and data accuracy.
Bye, Bismarck: 144 cities could lose status as metro areas
Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people would be changed to micropolitan" statistical areas instead. Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development. Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, like Bismarck and Sheboygan, would be changed to โmicropolitan" statistical areas instead. โBack in the 1950s, the population it took to create a metro area is different than it would be to create a metro area in 2020," said Rob Santos, president of the American Statistical Association. AdSome demographers aren't sold on the idea of changing the definition of a metro area.