The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

In this report:

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. The Importance of the Census
3. Census Accuracy: The Undercount (and Overcount)
4. Census 2010: Key Operations and Milestones; How You Can Get Involved
   1. Overview of the census plan
   2. What you need to know
   3. How you can help
5. Additional Information
   1. Frequently asked questions
   2. Facts and figures
   3. Census history

Reasons Behind Inaccuracies in the Census

Several reasons account for the persistent and disproportionate undercount of people of color and low-income people. Lower-income areas experience lower response rates for mail and door to door collection methods. People with lower education levels, lower literacy abilities, and difficulty with the English language may have difficulty understanding the census. These communities may generally misunderstand the importance of census participation. Furthermore, many distrust or are suspicious of the government because they fear that census responses may be used by immigration or law enforcement officials to deport or incarcerate them or their family members or may disqualify them for social welfare programs.

Rural residents are also difficult to count. Many homes are very remote and, therefore, inaccessible. Also, individuals living in rural areas tend to use post office boxes and/or general delivery “rural route” addresses rather than individual home addresses, making it more difficult to deliver and collect census forms.

Next Section: Determining the undercount/overcount