Detroit Challenges Census Count After The Trump Administration Cut Process Short

Michigan Advance

April 7, 2022

Detroit is challenging its headcount in the 2020 census after the U.S. Census Bureau acknowledged that a higher percentage of Black Americans were undercounted than in the prior census.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Detroit became the largest city in the nation to challenge the figures.

The city released a report last year suggesting that more than 8% of occupied homes in 10 neighborhoods may have been undercounted.

Additionally, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said that unoccupied homes being undercounted could have resulted in tens of thousands of residents being omitted from the final tally.

Duggan previously said that the city would file a lawsuit if the results are not changed during the appeals process.

Estimates from 2019 put the city’s population at about 670,000 residents, while the 2020 census data shows the city with a population of 639,000 residents.

In the past, Detroit has had one of the lowest self-response rates of major cities.

In the 2020 census, people were strongly encouraged to fill out the census online. The former Trump administration cut the census response time short, which Duggan said led census takers to skip protocols that would have required them to knock on doors of unresponsive households six times and to interview neighbors for information if the knocking did not work.

Even if the numbers are amended, it would not affect Michigan’s loss of a congressional seat — the state went from 14 to 13 districts — or the new district lines drawn for the U.S. House and state Legislature by Michigan’s Independent Redistricting Commission.

The figures could, however, affect how Detroit fares in the allocation of federal funds to local governments.

“A roughly 8% undercount of Detroit’s population in the 2020 census creates disastrous financial consequences for the city,” Duggan said, per the AP.

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