When you get a census form next year, Orange County wants you to fill it out.
Every 10 years, the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a nationwide survey to determine how the characteristics of the U.S. population have changed and how to allocate federal funding for the upcoming decade.
Beginning on April 1, 2020, the Census Bureau will attempt to count every person residing in the country in order to reapportion congressional seats, potentially redistrict states and distribute over $675 billion in federal funding every year until the next census.
Numbers captured from the census help local, state and national officials plan where to build emergency services and routes, schools and government buildings. Businesses also use the numbers to determine locations for factories, stores and offices, which will bring more jobs to certain areas.
If there is an undercount, certain populations will be misrepresented, which may affect everything that is accomplished or planned using the census.
In North Carolina, undercounting results from some fearing how the government will use the information, inadequate funding and “hard to count communities.”
Hard to count communities, specifically in North Carolina, include children under the age of 6, people of racial or ethnic minorities, renters and migrant populations.
Whitney Tucker, a member of the N.C. Complete Count Commission, explained the impact of undercounting children on congressional seats in 2010.
“In 2010, North Carolina undercounted so many people, particularly so many people under age 5, that independent researchers said that we would have likely already received another seat in Congress if we would have counted those kids the last time around,” Tucker said. “So now some researchers are saying that we could even potentially pick up two seats in Congress if we accurately count all of our citizens.”
