SAN FRANCISCO – (INT) – The 2020 Census is still 2-years away, but there are large segments of California’s population at risk of being undercounted.

That could affect the state’s congressional seats and billions of dollars in federal funding, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) warns.

As of 2016, about 75% of all Californians (30.2 million) belonged to one or more groups that tend to be undercounted in the census, including renters, young men, children, African Americans, and Latinos.

The state’s housing crisis, which forces more people into non-standard living situations, may make certain families harder to reach. Meanwhile, the current political climate may make immigrants and other groups more reluctant to share information with the government—especially given the Justice Department’s pending request to add a question about citizenship to the census.

Story Date: March 25, 2018