SAN FRANCISCO – (INT) - California could easily lose one of its 53 seats in the House of Representatives if the 2020 Census does a poor job reaching residents who are traditionally hard to count.

According to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), the state is vulnerable to an undercount.

Three in four residents belong to at least one of the populations that are historically undercounted: children, young men, Latinos, African Americans, and renters.

An undercount could also affect how congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn within California, shifting representation away from poorer areas with larger communities of color and toward areas that are wealthier and less racially and ethnically diverse.

Many parts of the state that are projected to have the greatest population growth—including the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire—are also projected to be disproportionately undercounted.

Story Date: November 7, 2018