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AFP / Getty IMages
Census officials say the overall 2010 population count was well-executed.
The U.S. Census Bureau is getting better at counting the number of people living in the United States, though it’s still disproportionately overlooking some minorities.
A review of the accuracy of the 2010 census found that it overcounted the total U.S. population by 0.01 percent, or about 36,000 people. That compares to a census overcount of 0.49 percent in 2000 and an undercount of 1.61 percent in 1990.
“On this one evaluation — the net undercount of the total population — this was an outstanding census,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said in a press release.
The post-enumeration survey measured the coverage of the nation’s household population (excluding the 8 million people in “group quarters,” such as nursing homes or college dorms). It surveyed a sample of the 300.7 million people living in housing units and then matched the responses to the census, resulting in estimates of error.
Census officials said renters were slightly undercounted and homeowners slightly overcounted in the 2010 census.
The 2010 count missed about 2.1 percent of black Americans and 1.5 percent of Hispanics. That's statistically comparable to levels in 2000. The non-Hispanic white population was slightly overcounted.
“While the overall coverage of the census was exemplary, the traditional hard-to-count groups, like renters, were counted less well,” Groves said. “Because ethnic and racial minorities disproportionately live in hard-to-count circumstances, they too were undercounted relative to the majority population.”
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The accuracy of the count is a big improvement from 1940, when the black undercount was estimated at a whopping 8.4 percent, according to an Associated Press review of records recently released online. That means more than a million blacks weren’t accounted for in 1940, an undercount that had ramifications at the time on the political map and the distribution of resources, according to the AP.
The total population of the U.S. was counted as 308,745,538 in 2010, a 9.7 percent increase from the 2000 count.
As required by the Constitution, the census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. The population count is used to allocate House seats and federal money for roads, schools and social programs.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com's James Eng contributed to this report.
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they missed all the couch potatos - mistaken for potatoes, thus not counted
I was employed by the Census Bureau for both the 2000 & 2010 count in a high minority area & was utterly disgusted by the way rules were not followed & supervisor's not removing people who where fraudulently taking count & illegally obtaining individual's personal information from another federal program. Thus wasting & stealing taxpayers $$$ & shortchanging a vast population of the needed tax $$$ the "ACCURATE" count would have provided. An example...I worked for the Census & my home/family was never left a notice of visit, visited, nor counted that I know of...5 minority people in one household adds up eventually...sad that some people were to busy figuring out ways to make a quick buck while selling you...their neighbor...short!
Hello, and then;
I did the Census Bureau 2010, but for a very different reason. I witnessed what you observed and found much of it to be a social issue. The people the CB employed to supervise the actual enumerators were generally over qualified. Dare I state that many are on the front lines of the Occupy movement today. Their personal issues were more about surviving than anything. Empty promises of possible future employment with CB and really comedic circumstances surrounding subordinates that they had little in common with socially made for a rich database of characters for a novel. Only, and woefully, the people were real and the system was devised by real people who just did not trust their employees.
Whats more, they did not care if the employees did not trust them. This made for a kind of horrible interaction of suspicion where none was warranted and frustration that accompanies such situations. Much of the perceived fraud was a matter of indignities heaped on the enumerators in kick-the-cat fashion. The real class distinctions in our society bloomed as all sorts of real and imagined discriminations appeared in the workplace where no one seemed to really know anything but how to use a big stick incentive management.
I think that outright condemning the CB is a bit harsh, but you are right to point up the fact that the mathematician managers at the top need to take credit for the institutional fraud they built into the census process. There were suggestions from many that could have been adopted, but they went into a black hole never to be replied on. This is the kind of transparency that is missing from government for which there is no excuse but plenty of, you guessed it more suspicion.
For those in government as a career, it behooves you to consider that the people whom you give the impression you blatantly despise and refuse to have a conversation with will, at some point reject the premise that you are entitled to a better life than they for your service to country. If it's just a job, then how is it different that all the rest of us who are exposed to market vulgarities?