The following article by Sam Levine was posted on the Huffington Post website December 21, 2017:
“With undercounted communities receiving less than their fair share of public funds, there will be undue economic pressure in rural communities, many of which are already struggling.”
People living in rural areas, particularly in minority communities, are among those that could be most severely affected by underfunding and a lack of preparation for the 2020 Census, a new report highlights.
Census officials have long had difficulty in counting Americans in rural areas, but the challenge could be exacerbated in 2020 by a new focus on getting Americans to respond to the Census using the internet. The rural areas where people are traditionally hard to count have lower internet access and use rates than the rest of the country, according to the report, which was written by demographer William O’Hare for the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.
Continue reading “Census Funding Cuts Might Cost Rural America Billions”