Politics & Government
The Politics of Census Design
Quick fact
In the U.S., states lose or gain seats in the House of Representatives based on census population counts. A difference of just a few thousand people can shift political power between states, and the citizenship question proposed for the 2020 census was estimated to cause an undercount of Latino residents, potentially affecting $675 billion in annual federal funding distribution.
Why this is interesting
You probably know the census counts people, but does it count you the right way? The simple choice of where to count a prisoner can decide which town gets a senator and which gets a school.