Census 2020

• Activity Number: 556 - Census 2020:
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Wednesday, July 31, 2019 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights
• Author(s): Connie Citro* and Hansi Lo Wang* and Edward Kissam*
• Companies: CIRS and National Public Radio and The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
• Keywords: Census; Census 2020; Federal Statistics; Citizenship; Redistricting

Abstract

This panel will examine concerns about Census planning and quality as understood in August 2019. In August 2018, The Committee on National Statistics Task Force on the 2020 Census released a report arguing that the late addition of a question on citizenship violates the Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical and, as importantly, will damage the quality of the 2020 Census. Continued issues with funding and legal challenges are raising concerns as well. A failed Census would be a disaster. A crippled census would result in undercounting of immigrants and minorities, raising concerns about the fairness of redistricting, and well science and policy based on Census data. The panel will feature a former Census Director, member of the CNSTAT task force, and NPR national correspondent Hansi Lo Wang, who has been covering 2020 census preparations since 2017. He’s combed through thousands of pages of court documents and investigated what happened to proposals to change how the decennial census collects race and ethnicity information and to add sexual orientation and gender identity questions to the American Community Survey.