The U.S. Census Bureau briefed the media on the launch of address canvassing, the first major field operation of the 2020 Census. Address canvassing improves and refines the Census Bureau’s address list of households nationwide, which is necessary to deliver invitations to respond to the census. The address list plays a vital role in ensuring a complete and accurate count of everyone living in the United States.
The Census Bureau created new software called the Block Assessment, Research and Classification Application (BARCA). It compares satellite images of the United States over time, allowing Census Bureau employees to spot new housing developments, changes in existing homes and other housing units that did not previously exist. Reviewers also use BARCA to compare the number of housing units in current imagery with the number of addresses on file for each block. Click here to read more from the 2020 Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau acknowledges the long-standing undercount of young children in decennial censuses and in Census Bureau surveys. Evaluations show that Census Bureau surveys like the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey, and the Survey of Income and Program Participation also undercount young children, which can result in biased survey estimates. The differential undercount of this population across geography and demographics makes this a larger problem for some racial and ethnic groups and some parts of the country. However, this issue is not unique to the United States, as research has shown that many other countries have a high net undercount of young children in their censuses. Click here to read more on researching the attitudes of households with young children.
