census

A person wearing a mask walks past posters encouraging census participation in Seattle in April 2020. The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted not only last year's national head count, but also a critical follow-up survey that the U.S. Census Bureau relies on to determine the tally's accuracy. Ted S. Warren/AP hide caption

Growing numbers of Latinos identifying as "Some other race" for the U.S. census have boosted the category to become the country's second-largest racial group after "White." Researchers are concerned the catchall grouping obscures many Latinx people's identities and does not produce the data needed to address racial inequities. Ada daSilva/Getty Images hide caption

Many at-home DNA ancestry testing kits require participants to mail in a sample of saliva. Cayce Clifford/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

James F. Holmes, the first-ever person of color to oversee the U.S. head count, stands inside his office at the Census Bureau's former headquarters in Suitland, Md., in 1998, when Holmes served as acting director for about nine months. Juana Arias/The Washington Post via Getty Images hide caption

People holding umbrellas walk through New York City's Times Square in 2019. The U.S. Census Bureau plans to change how it protects the confidentiality of people's information in the detailed demographic data it produces through the 2020 count. Mary Altaffer/AP hide caption

Minnesota's state demographer, Susan Brower (center), walks with Dean Goldberg, donning a blue cape and black mask as "Census Man," through the 2019 Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul, Minn., to encourage residents to participate in the national head count. Victor Thorstenson/Minnesota Department of Administration hide caption

Some states have gained or lost Electoral College votes because of changes in population numbers recorded by the 2020 census. Zach Levitt/NPR hide caption

U.S. Army soldiers board a bus in January 2020 at Fort Bragg, N.C., one of the military bases that will likely see population boosts in their 2020 census counts due to a change to how troops deployed abroad were counted. Chris Seward/AP hide caption

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) speaks outside the U.S. Capitol in March with other members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the size of which has stayed at 435 voting members for decades. Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Weeks before the 1980 census officially began, the Federation for American Immigration Reform launched its campaign to exclude unauthorized immigrants from population counts that, according to the Constitution, must include the "whole number of persons in each state." Ernie Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images hide caption