More than a quarter of the state’s “hard-to-count” population lives in Hampton Roads, representing potentially millions of dollars in federal funding lost when the government attempts to count every resident next year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these groups of people have historically been at risk of being missed in the once-a-decade census at disproportionately high rates.
About 254,000 people in Hampton Roads fall into one of the following hard-to-count populations: African American, Hispanic, children under 5, renters, single-parent households, immigrants, low-income populations, people with limited English proficiency and people living in multifamily housing.
Activists in Hampton Roads say they are doing everything they can to reassure skeptical residents that when the U.S. Census begins counting everyone in March, it’ll be worth it to respond.