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Black and Hispanic residents were way undercounted in the 2020 census

Published on 17 Comments on Black and Hispanic residents were way undercounted in the 2020 census

The Census Bureau released its analysis of the 2020 census today. Here is their estimate of overcounts and undercounts of the four largest demographic groups:

White and Asian people were overcounted more than in 2010, while Black and Hispanic people were undercounted more than in 2010.

For researchers, this stuff gets weighted and corrected, but for redistricting purposes it doesn't. I guess that's mission accomplished for Donald Trump and Wilbur Ross.

17 thoughts on “Black and Hispanic residents were way undercounted in the 2020 census”

  1. Special Newb

    Cosidering how fast my fellow hispanics are going GOP and how little Democrats are doing to stop it (thanks Biden) I don't mind. I'd much rather have someone who shares my priorities than someone who happens to look like me.

    2. hollywood

      Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
      What can Biden do? He can't vote on legislation. He has pushed legislation, but all progressive legislation stops in the Senate thanks to the Grim Reaper and Manchin. Apparently you share priorities with them.

      1. Special Newb

        Oh, I'm talking about his piss poor efforts during the election and after to reach out to hidpanic voters despite being urged to do do repeatedly.

  2. Spadesofgrey

    Typical though. Gang "business"don't want to be counted nor seen. If you look at the last 3 census's, same thing.

  3. JimFive

    Still seems like a strategic mistake to me. Undercounting Hispanics in Texas by 5% might lose a house seat that could have been gerrymandered to another white conservative.

  4. Heysus

    The repulsives win yet again. This does no good to the country. Don't the repulsives get this. Ah no, they are brain dead and have no critical thinking skills.

  5. rick_jones

    Apart from the obvious “And what were they for censuses of decades past?” there is also “Follow the links, always follow the links.” For which I do thank Kevin. In doing so we find this:

    The PES data show that:

    The Black or African American alone or in combination population had a statistically significant undercount of 3.30%. This is not statistically different from the 2.06% undercount in 2010.
    The Hispanic or Latino population had a statistically significant undercount rate of 4.99%. This is statistically different from a 1.54% undercount in 2010.

  6. censustaker1

    A few comments ---

    Contrary to Kevin's remark, these undercounts/overcounts do NOT get corrected in weighting and estimation. They tend to be "baked in" for distribution of funds and various estimates during the decade, including those figures used to weight the surveys.

    The 1990 Census was WAY worse than 2020 and 1980 was a little worse but 2020 reverses a pattern of having pretty high quality census data. The BIG problem with 2020 is the Latino count which was short by about 3 million

    There's a possibility that some of this may get "fixed" slightly in the Census Bureau's population estimates, but such a fix would probably be done nationally and would erase some of the larger discrepancies.

    Below the national level -- in particular for counties, cities and smaller places -- the numbers will likely never be fixed and highly undercounted places will lose out for the next decade 🙁

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