Census includes more hard-to-count people than expected

From Nonprofit VOTE

It's official: The first basic population count is out and every state has its redistricting data. The Census Bureau has also released the first two comprehensive reports, including its Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010. The report demonstrates that hard-to-count populations – though likely undercounted – were still counted at higher rates than expected.

• Asian-American and Hispanic populations grew the fastest, each at a rate of 43 percent. The Black or African-American population also rose 12 percent while the Non-Hispanic White population declined as a share of the populace. Newer immigrant populations were vital to maintaining and growing the population in all regions, which is important because of the count's impact on business development, future survey research, and the allocation of federal funds.
• The Census counted almost one million more Hispanics than expected based on previous estimates. The growing Hispanic population accounted for more than half of the nation's population growth from 2000 to 2010. This is despite the fact that Hispanics are a bellwether hard-to-count population given language, income, age and immigration status factors.
• For the first time, more than one in three Americans (36.3 percent) and almost half of those under 18 (46.5 percent) are “minority.” Children are yet another hard-to-count population whose overall diversity has surpassed recent estimates.

Nonprofits in all 50 states worked on the Census and the “Nonprofits Count!” 2010 campaign, making a difference by reaching hard-to-count populations and leveraging their reach and trust to encourage Census response. Many nonprofits served as official Questionnaire Assistance Centers and Be Counted sites.

More than 24,350 local nonprofits used Nonprofit VOTE resources to promote the Census in their communities. The 2010 campaign trained more than 2,300 local nonprofits on how to promote Census participation, distributed more than 6,300 toolkits and provided resources to Census outreach programs in 18 states and through 25 national nonprofit partners’ networks.