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The Constitution links the census to apportionment of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, and modern census-linked statistics guide geographic distribution of federal and state funds. 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The Constitution mandates a census and calls for Congress to use the results to apportion seats in Congress and the Electoral College. A substantial undercount in the census will misallocate congressional and electoral college votes. More recently, census-derived statistics are used for the geographic allocation of federal and state funds. This linkage of the census count to the distribution of federal and state funds puts the undercount on the radar for states and municipalities. Closely tied to the undercount and becoming a more central issue to the Census Bureau is the difficulties in reaching hard-to-count populations. Is the Census Bureau up to the task? We end our story with a discussion of Detroit’s experience with the 2020 Census, including its unsuccessful challenge to its housing count.  \nKeywords: decennial census, undercount, civil rights, federal revenue sharing funds, Detroit  \nThe census is the only federal statistical program mentioned in the Constitution. Every ten years the census enumerates the total population so that this nation will have a democratic government in which each state has political power reflecting its population size. James Madison wanted the first census to be ex-  \npanded beyond bare enumeration. He wished to collect information about the population so that Congress could be more informed when  \nthey enacted laws and spent tax dollars.  \nFrom 1790 to 1940, all respondents were asked a series of questions about their demographic and economic status. From 1940 to 2000, a sample of households received a long form that asked such questions; most respondents, however, filled out a short form asking  \nLisa Neidert is affiliated with the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan, United States. Reynolds Farley is the Otis Dudley Duncan Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan and is affiliated with the Population Studies Center and the Gerald Ford School of Policy, United States. Jeffrey Morenoff is the associate dean for research and policy experiments and professor of public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Policy at the University of Michigan, United States.  \n© 2025 Russell Sage Foundation. Neidert, Lisa, Reynolds Farley, and Jeffrey Morenoff. 2025.“How Census Undercount Became a Civil Rights Issue and Why It Is Increasingly Important.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 11(1): 26–43. [https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2025.11.1.02. Direct correspondence](https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2025.11.1.02. Direct correspondence)[ ](https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2025.11.1.02. Direct correspondence)to: Lisa Neidert, at [lisan@umich.edu](lisan@umich.edu), 909 Northwood Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103, United States; Reynolds Farley, [at renf@umich.edu](at renf@umich.edu), 807 Asa Gray Drive \\#306 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, United States; Jeffrey Morenoff, at [morenoff@umich.edu](morenoff@umich.edu), Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, 735 South State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States.  \nOpen Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.  \nh ow c e nsu s u n d e r c ou n t b e ca m e a c i v i l r i g h t s i s su e 27  \ntheir address, name, race, sex, and age. Since 2001, the collection of detailed information about economic and demographic characteristics has been collected not by the census but by the annual American Community Survey (ACS) . The ACS does not enumerate the population. Instead, it gathers data about the characteristics of residents of places whose official population size is ascertained by the decennial census. T","cbCaiszjdZClDVD5","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiszjdZClDVD5","pdf",1159029,18,"English","# Introduction and constitutional basis\n## Census accuracy and civil rights implications\n# Data collection history and survey evolution\n## Decennial census vs. American Community Survey (ACS)\n# Hard-to-count populations and administrative challenges\n## Reaching populations for accurate enumeration\n# Detroit and the 2020 Census challenge\n## Housing and population count disputes","[{\"question\":\"How does the census undercount become a civil rights issue?\",\"answer\":\"Census undercount can distort political representation by affecting apportionment and Electoral College outcomes. It can also misdirect federal and state funds tied to census and related statistics.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does the American Community Survey (ACS) play compared with the decennial census?\",\"answer\":\"The ACS collects detailed characteristics of residents, while the decennial census determines official population size. ACS data then support local planning and policy, making accuracy critical for downstream decisions.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are hard-to-count populations important for census accuracy?\",\"answer\":\"Difficulties reaching specific populations can increase undercount risk. The document treats these challenges as central to whether the Census Bureau can meet the task.\"}]","How Census Undercount Became a Civil Rights Issue and Why It Is Increasingly Important | PDF",1792061718,45]