Census errors anger minorities in US

The federal agency that counts the US population got some numbers wrong for the 2020 census, undercounting black, Latino and Indigenous populations while overcounting white and Asian people, the Census Bureau said on Thursday.

The miscount was about 0.24 percent of the total population in the United States, amounting to about 750,000 people, the bureau said. In 2010, the census－which is taken every 10 years－missed 0.01 percent of the population.

Despite the miscounts, the overall population count of 323.2 million was largely accurate, the agency said.

The miscounts released on Thursday are based on the census' post-enumeration survey, a follow-up with some people used as a tool to measure who was missed in the census.

Beyond illustrating the racial makeup of the US, results of the census help determine how many House of Representative seats and Electoral College votes each state gets and the distribution of federal aid for public services, including education, healthcare and transportation.

Undercounting communities results in reduced political representation on local, state and federal levels.

Census Bureau Director Robert Santos said during a webinar on Thursday that the results are "fit to use" for redistricting and are of "high quality".

Not everyone agrees. The largest undercount was for Hispanic people－5 percent－who are now the nation's largest minority group.

Arturo Vargas, chief executive of the NALEO Educational Fund, said at a news conference that throughout his 35 years of tracking the census, he had never seen such a significant undercount in the Latino population.

"As you can imagine, we are just terribly－I can't even find the word right now－upset about the extent of the Latino undercount," said the chief of the group that speaks up for Latinos.

National Urban League chief executive Marc Morial told a media conference: "These numbers are devastating. Once again, we see an overcount of white Americans and an undercount of black and Hispanic Americans.

"I want to express in the strongest possible terms our outrage."

Though the margin of those not counted wasn't statistically significant, in addition to the miscount for Hispanics, about 3.3 percent of black people and 0.9 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives were undercounted. The overcounts were 1.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites and 2.6 percent for Asian Americans.