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Six things to know about the U.S. Census and Florida
In May, the U.S. Census Bureau will start sending field workers known as enumerators out to knock on the doors of those who still haven’t replied. If no one opens the door, the enumerator will go next door to get a “proxy” report, or estimate, from a neighbor. If the neighbors don’t respond, Census workers make their own estimates of household inhabitants based on administrative records, such as IRS or Social Security data or demographic characteristics of the neighborhood. (Approximately 6 million people were “imputed” this way in the 2010 Census).
At the end of the day, the accuracy of the Census depends on how inclusion mistakes, or overcounts, stack up against those who didn’t respond and were missed by enumerators. In 2010, both numbers were pretty close, and the end number of 308.7 million people — with a net overcount of 0.01% — was lauded as highly accurate, according to Robert Santos, vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute. He says the 2020 count will boil down to the same factors. “The accuracy really depends on errors, and it depends on prediction.”
2 Historically Undercounted Groups and People
- Non-native English speakers and those who are “linguistically isolated”
- Large or “overcrowded” households
- Single-parent households
- People who are unemployed or homeless
- Those receiving public assistance (SSI, disability)
- Adults without a high school diploma
- People who didn’t participate in the previous Census
- People living in seasonal or campground areas or scattered mobile homes
- Those living in high-crime areas
- People living in neighborhoods with hidden housing units
- Grandparents raising grandchildren
- Communities with large populations of minorities
- Rural communities
- Immigrants
- Low-income households
- Renters
- Migrant workers
- LGBTQ individuals
- Young children
