Census 2020: Resource Page

Below are answers to questions asked by participants during our 2020 Census Policy Briefing

Why is it important to know if a household has single parents?

• According to the latest Census Bureau research on census self-response, married couple households have higher census self-response rates than single-parent households, especially single female-headed households. In other words, households headed by single parents are less likely to answer the census questionnaire on their own, and therefore need to be counted in person by census enumerators, which heightens the risk that these households will be counted inaccurately or missed entirely.
  • Source: https://www.census.gov/srd/papers/pdf/rrs2014-08.pdf
  • Source: https://www.censushardtocountmaps2020.us/
• It is important to know for a few reasons, one of those reasons being the ability to view changing demographics in America overtime. The changes in the number of children in single parent households might be an indicator of shifts in social norms, the economy, or other social institutions.
• Federal funds, grants, and supports to counties and communities are based on population totals and different breakdowns by demographics like sex, age, race, etc. Single parents tend to be a disadvantaged group, with many single parent families struggling to make an adequate income. Data on household composition helps to inform federal agencies for their planning and funding of government programs that provide services, supports, or funds to people raising children alone (e.g. SNAP, WIC, Section 8, Head Start, SCHIP, and other grants).
  • Source: https://www.census.gov/acs/www/about/why-we-ask-each-question/relationship/

How does this categorization directly correlate to how government dollars are spent on social services?

• Federal programs use the Census Bureau data to define the characteristics of populations served by their program or the characteristics of organizations and local government eligible to receive funds to provide those services.
• “Programs use population, demographic, economic, and/or housing characteristics in formulas used to calculate an allocation or determine eligibility for a program. For example, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program uses measures of poverty, population, housing overcrowding, age of housing, and population growth to allocate funding.”
  • Source – see table 1: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/program-management/working-papers/Uses-of-Census-Bureau-Data-in-Federal-Funds-Distribution.pdf

Who is accountable for counting children and youth (up to 24) who are in foster care?

• Ultimately, the householder is responsible for counting those individuals who live in their home, and their relation to those individuals. The 2000 Census was the first decennial census to identify children in foster care specifically. The 2010 census did not identify foster care children specifically (reasons why the question were dropped are in the article below).
  • Source: https://www.prb.org/censusbureaufosterchildcategory/
• The person who completes the census (usually the homeowner or renter) is designated as the householder. Then, all other household members were categorized in terms of their relationship to the householder, where foster child was an option in the 2000 Decennial. This allowed people to view characteristics of foster children specifically, rather than only counting foster children with all children.
  • Source: https://www.aecf.org/m/pdf/FosterChildren-July-2008.pdf
• Foster children (and other children in temporary or complicated living situations) are more likely to be missed on the census form, potentially because respondents are unsure of whether to include the child as a household resident (e.g. Usual Place of Residence).
  • Source: http://civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/census/Fact-Sheet-Undercount-of-Young-Children.pdf

Who is accountable for counting youth in juvenile detention?

• Youth in juvenile detention, like all individuals, are counted in their “usual place of residence.” For the 2020 census, the census bureau states that juveniles in correctional facilities or group homes should be counted at their facility.
  • Source – see section 17: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/06/30/2016-15372/proposed-2020-census-residence-criteria-and-residence-situations
• There is also the Biennial Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) conducted by the Census Bureau to get at this information
  • https://www.census.gov/econ/overview/go3100.html

Are individuals with felonies, who are not eligible to vote, included in the census count?

• The census seeks to count ALL individuals, including incarcerated individuals. Incarcerated individuals are to be counted at their correctional facility (“usual place of residence”), not their pre-incarceration address.
  • Source – section B, part 1: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/06/30/2016-15372/proposed-2020-census-residence-criteria-and-residence-situations

Are individuals with felonies considered in the allocation of dollars into social services?

• Redistricting is a process that is undergone after the decennial, where states are to redraw their legislative districts. This process is threatened when we count incarcerated folks at their prison address, because it inflates the total population in areas that have large prison populations. Though these areas might show up as having large populations, much of the population are not active members of society and, as you mention, cannot vote – ultimately, throwing off the political power of the voters in those neighborhoods. Some states ultimately choose to change the addresses of their prison population to reflect their pre-incarceration addresses, prior to redistricting. In 2020, the census bureau will offer a product to states that will make this process easier, if a state should choose.
  • Same source as above.
  • Huffington Post article on this: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2020-census-prison-population_us_5a7cb966e4b044b3821b0507