Next Year's Census Will Be Biggest, Most Costly Ever

New methods, standards as expenses soar
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2009 11:02 AM CDT
Next Year's Census Will Be Biggest, Most Costly Ever
Speaking about the group's plans for the 2010 Census, a director at the National Association of Latino Elected Officials said, "We're prepared to mount our own national campaign to count ourselves."   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Next year’s US census will be the largest and costliest ever, requiring 140,000 workers and $15 billion, the Chicago Tribune reports. Thousands of employees have already hit the field to confirm addresses in an effort to ensure oft-underrepresented renters, minorities, and the homeless are accurately counted. Other census matters of note:

  • For the first time, those in dorms, group homes, prisons, and homeless shelters will be counted.

  • Another first: mail-in surveys and workers carrying GPS devices will replace the standard pencil-and-paper system.
  • Various groups are emerging to advocate for the representation of certain demographics—or to call for boycotts of what they call a political tool.
  • The census will figure in the distribution of stimulus funding.
  • Nine states are set to gain US representatives—Texas may get four new ones—while 12 states are likely to lose them.
(More census data stories.)

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