Trump administration’s insistence on citizenship question may skew US Census by 9 million people

Meanwhile, a federal judge says new evidence suggests the Trump administration might have had discriminatory intent in seeking to add the question.

DANIELLE MCLEAN
JUN 25, 2019, 8:00 AM

An estimated nine million Americans could go uncounted in the 2020 Census if the Trump administration is allowed to insert a citizenship question into the decennial headcount, according to the federal agency tasked with carrying out the survey.

A new U.S. Census Bureau research paper found that 8% of the population could be undercounted if the citizenship question is added, because households with noncitizen members might question the confidentiality of their responses and choose not to respond, fearing possible government misuse of the data.

According to the study, the Census Bureau will not have enough time to conduct a controlled trial that could accurately indicate the impact of the question on its head count of all people living in the country.

Adding the question, the bureau concludes, “could affect the self-response rate, a key driver of the cost and quality of a census.”

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