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2020 Census Could Lead To Worst Undercount Of Black, Latinx People In 30 Years
June 4, 20193:26 AM ET
Hansi Lo Wang - Square
HANSI LO WANG
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Diana Escamilla (center), an organizer with Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, poses for a photo with volunteers Angeles Rosales and Janet Mendez in front of a 2020 census outreach campaign poster in Spanish.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
Challenges threatening the upcoming 2020 census could put more than 4 million people at risk of being undercounted in next year's national head count, according to new projections by the Urban Institute.
The nonpartisan think tank found that the danger of an inaccurate census could hit some of the country's most difficult to count populations the hardest. Based on the institute's analysis, the 2020 census could lead to the worst undercount of black and Latino and Latina people in the U.S. since 1990.
"Miscounts of this magnitude will have real consequences for the next decade, including how we fund programs for children and invest in our infrastructure," says Diana Elliott, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute who co-wrote the report released Tuesday.
Nationally, black residents could be undercounted by as much as 3.68%.
"That doesn't sound terribly high, but when you realize that that's 1.7 million people, that's a lot of people to be missed in the overall count," Elliott explains.