An accurate count ensures that each state receives the appropriate number of resources and representation. (NNS file photo by Sue Vliet) Two years ago, the U.S. Census Bureau set out to count every person in the United States as mandated in the Constitution. But this time it did so as the nation grappled with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and other dynamics, including an effort to add a citizenship question, came into play. The preliminary assessment: Post-count analysis showed that the 2020 census both overcounted and undercounted certain populations compared to data from 2010. Last month, the bureau released results from its post-enumeration survey and demographic analysis estimates. African Americans were undercounted by 3.30% compared to 2.06% in 2010 and the Hispanic and Latino population faced an undercount of 4.99% compared to 1.54% in 2010. Other undercounted groups included American Indians or Alaskan Natives living on reservations. Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! Meanwhile, non-Hispanic whites were overcounted by 1.64% versus .83% and Asian Americans were overcounted by 2.62% compared to 0%, according to the estimates. Undercounts raise the specter of fewer federal dollars to local communities and less representation for undercounted groups in redistricting. According to the latest figures from the Census Bureau, the City of Milwaukee’s population is 34% white (non-Hispanic or Latinx), 38.8% Black, 19.4% Latinx, 4.6% Asian and 0.5% Native American. “There’s been a historical pattern of undercounts in Milwaukee, even dating back to the 1990s and 2000s,” said Sharon Robinson, the director of administration for the City of Milwaukee. She also served as the chairwoman of the Greater Milwaukee Complete Count Committee. The city is reviewing census data and comparing it to its own data. If enough discrepancies are found, the city could challenge the results. Robinson explained that in preparation of the census, the city updated its Local Update of Census Addresses Operation and added thousands of housing units since 2010. The U.S. Census Bureau’s own population estimates from 2019 put the City of Milwaukee at over 590,000, but the 2020 data put Milwaukee’s population at 577,222. “There’s many reasons we want to stand up for the residents of this community,” Robinson said. “A fair census is clearly a civil rights issue. We just can’t afford to get these numbers wrong.” Why were certain populations undercounted? Margo Anderson is a professor emerita of history and urban studies at UW-Milwaukee. She is an expert on the census and is currently on a panel under the National Academy of Sciences that evaluates why there was an undercount. “We don’t have enough local data to say very much,” she said. “The big takeaway from the 2020 census is a combination of the controversy generated by Trump to put a citizenship question on the form and then the pandemic meant that the actual count was delayed.” Even though the citizenship question didn’t go on the form, its possible immigrant communities didn’t respond to the census for fear of deportation, Anderson said, but nothing is known for certain. The citizenship question was a threat to the mechanics of the count and American democracy, she said. Donald Trump’s administration raised the possibility of the question amid already existing fears that the former president’s immigration policies and rhetoric would dampen participation in the count of undocumented citizens. The plain language of the Constitution requires an attempt to count every U.S. resident. Trump’s administration also was hostile toward the undocumented population during its entire term, said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a nonprofit organization that advocates for immigrant rights. She said many immigrants feared that census information would be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Furthermore, the pandemic locked everything down when the most intense counting efforts were set to take place, Anderson said, and everything had to be restructured. The in-person counting phase was pushed back from spring to summer and places such as libraries that were meant to serve as census hubs were closed due to the pandemic. Robinson added that Trump’s decision to end the count early may have stopped efforts made to reach hard-to-count populations such as the LGBTQ+ community. Other demographics that are often undercounted include people who live in group quarters such as dorms and nursing homes. The data showed a significant drop in group quarters, Robinson said, noting that that number decreased from over 18,000 to just over 15,000.