How Census Data Can Be Used For Money

Notation: Timing references in this mail have been updated every bit of May five, 2020. For more information on how the 2020 Census volition impact our power to build power for the next decade and beyond, click here.

The 2020 Census is hither. And while it may be just a humble survey, its touch on our individual and collective quality of life is anything just. The Constitution requires the federal regime to count everyone living in the United States every ten years, and the results of that count determine a lot about how money and power are distributed in our lodge. If you lot've always wondered how sure communities always seem to have what they need to thrive while others — namely ours — don't, the results of the demography have a lot to do with that. In that location'due south a long history of Blackness folks being undercounted in the census, from beingness originally counted as only 3/5ths human, to governments spending inadequate resources on counting our communities.

Color Of Change staff stand on the steps of the Supreme Court during an ultimately successful campaign to block the citizenship question from the 2020 Census.

This yr, we have three different means (online, by phone, and on paper) to be counted in the demography, giving us the power to reverse these trends and get the resources and representation nosotros deserve. Of course, that's why many of the aforementioned forces that endeavour to stop united states of america from voting and organizing confronting systemic injustice are also trying to confuse and fifty-fifty scare our communities out of being fully counted. Only just like nosotros successfully defeated Trump's racist and unconstitutional citizenship question, we're fighting against disinformation and other attempts to count Black communities out. The 2020 Census is safe and uncomplicated to complete; keep reading to acquire what's at stake so we can get out the count.

Every year, our federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on important programs our communities need to thrive, including SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, Head Start, CHIP (health insurance for kids), special instruction, and more. Information from the census is used to decide how to divide that money amongst states and communities. And that's not the only way census data affects our coin:

Businesses use census data to brand decisions about where to open new stores, offices, and factories, and then communities that get fully counted are more likely to go those task opportunities and services.
Health is wealth, and census information are used to decide where to build and expand hospitals and other health intendance facilities, grocery stores, and more.
Land and local communities use demography data to come across how many seats they'll need in early pedagogy programs and schools and to budget for teachers, learning materials, and other resources they'll need to care for and educate children. That means communities that are undercounted will be more likely to have overcrowded classrooms and outdated materials, while communities that become out the count will be able to give their kids a better start in life, which translates into greater economic and social power in the futurity.

And speaking of power, let'southward talk almost some of the ways the census impacts our collective ability:

Demography data decide how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives, which has a huge affect on federal laws and other decisions that bear on our lives.
The results of the census also determine how many votes each state gets in the Balloter College that officially elects the President. (At that place are a lot of things folks could say well-nigh the Electoral Higher and whether it should even exist, but every bit long as information technology does it's important for states to go their fair share of representation in that location!)
Land lawmakers use demography data to redraw district boundaries, which not only affects our representation in Congress, information technology too affects our political power in states themselves. State legislatures accept a huge impact on residents' quality of life considering and then many of the laws that affect our daily lives come from our state and local governments.
Advocacy groups use census information to sympathize communities' populations and needs, to find trends that expose bug similar environmental injustice, housing and employment discrimination, and health disparities, and to fight for adequate facilities and resources in our communities.

With all this and more at stake, we simply can't afford to not exist counted. Please share this data with your family and friends and so they tin learn what'southward at stake in the 2020 Census besides, so nosotros can all get counted this year. Together, we tin can ensure that our communities go the coin and ability we deserve.