Current:Home > MyCensus Bureau valiantly conducted 2020 census, but privacy method degraded quality, report says -AssetTrainer
Census Bureau valiantly conducted 2020 census, but privacy method degraded quality, report says
View
Date:2025-04-19 08:19:12
The U.S. Census Bureau’s career staffers valiantly conducted the 2020 census under unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, but new privacy protocols meant to protect the confidentiality of participants degraded the resulting data, according to a report released Tuesday.
Key innovations such as encouraging most participants to fill out the census questionnaire online and permitting the use of administrative records from government agencies including the IRS and the Social Security Administration when households hadn’t responded allowed the statistical agency to conduct the census ''amidst an unceasing array of challenges,” an independent evaluation released by a panel of experts from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said.
The once-a-decade head count determines how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets and aids in the distribution of $2.8 trillion in annual spending by the federal government.
“The overriding, signature achievement of the 2020 Census is that there was a 2020 Census at all,” the report said.
At the same time, the introduction of the new privacy method, which added intentional errors, or “noise,” to the data to protect participants’ confidentiality, was introduced late in the 2020 census planning process and wasn’t properly tested and deployed in the context of a census, according to the report.
Other concerns identified by the panel included the widening gap from 2010 to 2020 in the overcounting of non-Hispanic white and Asian residents, and the undercounting of Black and Hispanic residents and American Indians and Alaska Natives on reservations. The gap could cause the undercounted communities to miss out on their fair share of funding and political representation, the report said.
The panel also found an excess reporting of people’s ages ending in “0” or “5,” something known as “age heaping.” The growth in age heaping in 2020 was likely from census takers interviewing neighbors or landlords, if they couldn’t reach members of a household. Age heaping usually reflects an age being misreported and raises red flags about data quality.
For the 2030 census, the National Academies panel recommended that the Census Bureau try to get more households to fill out the census form for themselves and to stop relying on neighbors or landlords for household information when alternatives like administrative records are available.
The panel also urged the Census Bureau to reduce the gaps in overcounting and undercounting racial and ethnic groups.
While the National Academies panel encouraged the agency to continue using administrative records to fill in gaps of unresponsive households, it said it didn’t support moving to a records-based head count until further research was completed.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on X, formerly known as Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP.
veryGood! (1)
Related
- Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
- From Hot Priest to ‘All of Us Strangers,’ Andrew Scott is ready to ‘share more’ of himself
- Summer House's Sam Feher and Kory Keefer Break Up After Over a Year of Dating
- Jason Bateman Jokes About Getting Lip Fillers at Emmy Awards 2023
- Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
- Vivek Ramaswamy suspends his 2024 Republican presidential bid and endorses rival Donald Trump
- Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state confronts flood damage after heavy rain kills at least 12
- California’s Oil Country Faces an ‘Existential’ Threat. Kern County Is Betting on the Carbon Removal Industry to Save It.
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Matthew Macfadyen's Final Tom-Greg Moment Is the Perfect Succession Sendoff at Emmys
Ranking
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Turkey’s Erdogan vows to widen operations against Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq
- Lionel Messi wins 'The Best FIFA' men's player of year award, beating out Mbappe, Haaland
- Six takeaways from the return of the Emmys
- Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
- Suspected Long Island Serial Killer Rex Heuermann Charged With Murder of 4th Woman
- Apple to remove pulse oximeter from watches to avoid sales ban
- Brazilian police are investigating the death of a Manhattan art dealer as a homicide
Recommendation
The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding
Thai officials, accused of coddling jailed ex-PM, say not calling him ‘inmate’ is standard practice
How Margaret Mead's research into utopias helped usher in the psychedelic era
EU presidency warns democracy will be put to the test in US elections in November
Could your smelly farts help science?
Cowboys' latest playoff disaster is franchise's worst loss yet in long line of failures
How Pregnant Suki Waterhouse Had Emmys Dress Redesigned to Fit Baby Bump
AP VoteCast: Iowa caucusgoers want big changes, see immigration as more important than the economy