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Americans were less willing to share their age, sex, race and ethnicity with the federal government on the decenial census form this year, compared to a decade ago. That means Census Bureau officials will need to spend the next month and a half filling in the gaps with other government records.
In-person follow-up with unresponsive households was conducted on a compressed schedule this year, at the request of the Trump Administration.
Census Bureau Deputy Director Ron Jarmin doesn’t believe that truncated schedule was responsible for the increase in unfinished forms, however. Even those who responded on their own -- over the internet, mail or by phone -- also left out answers at higher rates than usual.
As Dr. Jarmin wrote on the census website blog, “something else is at work.” LAist talked with researchers and census advocates to find out what that might be.
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