GOPC recently learned that the US Census is proposing to limit its 2020 Census products. Of great concern is the proposal to only release a range of racial/ethnicity, age and household tenure to the county geographic level. GOPC and many others rely on the block group and tract levels of geography to (which are much smaller than county level!) to monitor change over time in our cities and neighborhoods. The Census argues that the smaller geographies threaten individuals’ privacy; GOPC and others strongly disagree and argue that the social costs of not being able to do fine-grained research far outweigh supposed privacy issues. The Census has offered block group and tract level data for decades without incident.
GOPC sent a letter to the US Census expressing our deep concerns and co-signed a national letter written by our national affiliate, Smart Growth America.
For more information what is at stake you can read the Census’s notice here: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USCENSUS/bulletins/2f179ae
Here’s a great summary of the tables that could be lost if the Census moves forward with this proposal: https://mailchi.mp/umn/nhgis10721?e=ba7543e9fc
Here’s Smart Growth America’s letter, which GOPC is a co-signer of: https://smartgrowthamerica.org/opposing-census-proposal/