The full report, including studies and additional recommendations, can be viewed by visiting: www.cmbp.gov.
"Census 2000 was plagued by the so-called 'differential undercount,'" explained Gil Casellas, "a problem that occurs when more members of racial minorities are undercounted by the Census than majority members of the population. According to the Census Bureau itself, the 2000 Census missed Asians nearly twice as often as Whites; African Americans were missed three times as often as Whites; Hispanics were missed over four times as often; Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders were missed over six times as often; and American Indians were missed seven times as often."
"Even after the Census Bureau's operational successes of meeting deadlines, hiring nearly one million persons, forming over 140,000 partnerships, completing the first-ever paid advertising campaign and raising the mail response rate, the differential undercount, while reduced, remains," Mr. Casellas said. "We must be alert to the problem of the differential undercount as the Census Bureau prepares to make the critical decision in October as to whether to release the adjusted numbers. We must certainly keep it in mind as we go into Census 2010."
During the course of its mandated three year existence, the CMBP conducted a series of studies in conjunction with experts in various fields who examined the impact the undercount will have on key federal, state and local programs and services such as those pertaining to healthcare, education, transportation and others.
"The undercount not only hampers Congress in its ability to direct federal funds to places where they are needed, but it also denies to taxpayers the right to have their money come back to their communities in the form of Federal program funds," said Casellas. "We have long argued, and studies have borne this out, that the use of statistically adjusted numbers would have made a major difference in people's lives."
Last spring the Census Bureau recommended against adjusting the census for purposes of redrawing the lines of Congressional, state and local political districts. The Census Bureau estimates that the 2000 Census missed 6.4 million people, disproportionately minority, children and the poor, and counted 3.1 million people twice, largely white and affluent, for a net undercount of 3.3 million people.
The bipartisan Census Monitoring Board was established in 1997 to monitor Census 2000 operations. During that time it conducted 11 hearings, 18 briefings, 33 field operations, numerous community forums and panel discussions, and generated 10 reports to Congress.
