Saturday, March 17, 2001
Tracts, blocks and undercounts: a census vocabulary
Gannett News Service and The Cincinnati Enquirer
With the release of state apportionment numbers, the public will be hearing certain words over and over. Here is a short glossary of some of those terms.
• Apportionment: After every national census, the number of members each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives is recalculated using the latest unadjusted state population numbers. Because the total number of House members is capped at 435, rapidly growing states gain members at the expense of states growing at a slower pace. All states are guaranteed one member. Apportionment is required under Article I, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution. By law, the Census Bureau is required to release the state numbers by Dec. 31 in the year of a census, which is taken every 10 years.
• Redistricting: By April 1, the Census Bureau will release population numbers down to county and local levels. These numbers are used for distribution of political power and government funding. On the political front, state legislatures or commissions will use the population figures to look at state legislative and congressional districts to see if their boundaries should be changed. In the handful of states losing or gaining congressional seats, lawmakers will have to re draw district lines to reflect the new reality.
• Tracts: A section of a municipality, usually with a population between 2,000 and 8,000, by which the Census Bureau counts. Typically, these conform to established neighborhoods, but some areas have more than one tract. For example, Cincinnati's 48 neighborhoods have 119 tracts that generally fit into that neighborhood structure. Colerain Township has 17 tracts.
• Blocks: The smallest geographic region within which the Census counts people. Close to the size of typical city block, blocks usually contain about 50 people.
• Race: In 2000, the races counted by the census included: white; black; Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander; and American Indian and Alaskan. People who thought they fell into none of those categories could choose the “other” option, or they could indicate a combination of more than one race. These categories differ from 1990 because Asian was not a separate category and because multiple races — there are 63 possible combinations — weren't an option in 1990.
• Hispanic: The Census Bureau considers Hispanics an ethnic group, not a race. Everybody who selected a race on a 2000 Census form also reported whether they were Hispanic. So a person could be counted as white under race, for example, and also counted as Hispanic in the 2000 Census.
• Differential undercount: Every census since 1790 has had an undercount, an official count that, because of people's refusal to participate or because of flaws in the counting process, falls short of including everyone. A differential undercount occurs when areas of the country such as rural communities or racial or ethnic groups are missed at a higher rate than the general population. But the Census Bureau said 2000's count was the most accurate ever, so the Bush administration agreed not to use statistical sampling to adjust the numbers.
• Statistical sampling: After the Census Bureau finished field work in communities and neighborhoods this summer, residents in 314,000 households randomly selected across the country were interviewed by experienced census workers. The Census Bureau compiled its estimate for differential undercounts by using characteristics of people in the sampled households who were missed by earlier census takers. The undercount is critical to large cities because the actual head count is used for redistricting and federal formulas to allocate $1.8 billion a year in government funds. But Commerce Secretary Don Evans ordered this month that only unadjusted figures be released. The decision is likely to be challenged in federal court.
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