Opinion: How proposed changes to U.S. census could harm public health
Proposed changes to the U.S. census will selectively reduce the number of people counted—and where they’re counted—resulting in skewed data that will prevent true understanding of U.S. morbidity and mortality rates, and could result in far-ranging harms to public health, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Nancy Krieger.
Krieger, professor of social epidemiology, wrote about the potential fallout of the proposed changes in an Oct. 9 STAT News opinion piece.
Krieger outlined details of the proposed changes:
- Instead of counting everyone in each state, the count would be restricted to citizens or lawful permanent U.S. residents—meaning that groups such as international students, work visa holders, recognized refugees and asylum seekers, and undocumented immigrants wouldn’t be counted.
- Instead of counting people in relation to their usual residence on Census Day (April 1 of the census year), people would be counted in relation to where they resided the most between Jan. 3 and April 1—meaning that college students would be counted as living at their parents’ address instead of at college. In addition, retirees who spend cold months in warm states and seasonal workers would be counted where they winter, instead of at their primary non-winter residence.
- Questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation would be prohibited.
Lack of accurate census data could undermine federal funding formulas used to plan and allocate resources across every sector of the U.S., Krieger wrote. In the health sector, census data is used, for instance, to help plan where to locate hospitals and other services, estimate how many people are displaced by natural disasters, and assess the potential for the spread of communicable diseases.
Krieger added that, with skewed census data, longstanding racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S.—such as high maternal mortality rates among Black women—could be rendered invisible.
“Erasing data does not erase need or harm, but instead is a time-disgraced method of avoiding accountability via the shameful ruse of ‘no data, no problem’,” she wrote.
She urged people who care about the health and well-being of the U.S. population to submit comments on the proposed changes by the Nov. 2 deadline.
Read the STAT News opinion piece:
Proposed U.S. census changes could be catastrophic for public health
