The new homes in Vineyard are pictured on August 11, 2021. The U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday that Utah is the sixth state to be counted in the 2020 census (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
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SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s population growth of 18.4% between the 2010 and 2020 censuses is at the top of the nation; However, officials from the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday that they counted Beehive State and seven other states during the collection period.
But it is not yet clear what this means for Utah’s official total population for 2020. Deb Stempowski, assistant director of programs for decades at the U.S. Census Bureau, said her team will review the results after the census to see if any adjustments in the population are justified. The total population for each state helps determine federal spending and resource allocation.
However, local experts believe that you have nothing to worry about. Mallory Bateman, director of demographic research at the Kem C. Gardner Institute for Policy at the University of Utah, said she said it shouldn’t affect the number and distribution of Utah funding, if any.
“I think it’s kind of a reminder of what a wild atmosphere was going on,” she said. “You never want to leave, but it’s better that there was no change in the distribution or something that happened in Utah that might have been called into question by this information.”
The Census Bureau highlighted the results of the publication of its post-census survey, which analyzed the accuracy of the collection. He found that the census also counted Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island, while it counted Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
The rest of the states did not have a large enough statistical difference to register a problem, said Tim Kennell, assistant chief of the statistical method bureau.
In the case of Utah, the net coverage error estimate was plus 2.59%, well above the national average of minus 0.24%. The higher the percentage, the more people were counted than it should have been. Utah was the sixth highest in the count with Hawaii plus 6.79% landing with the highest percentage.
Experts do not know exactly why this happened, but there is a tendency to over-count when people live in two areas and accidentally fill out forms at both addresses, Kennel explained.
“Or someone else can fill in their form and include them in one form, and someone else can fill them in another form from another place,” he added. “Children in custody or going back with divorced parents can be a classic example of this type of situation.”
Bateman said he speculated that Utah was overrated because “many factors” had occurred by April 1, 2020, which is what the census was trying to capture.
This was in the midst of the blockade and restrictions on COVID-19, so the “snow birds” may have stayed a little longer than usual. It may also be the result of off-campus students, as dormitories were almost empty at the time. There was also a census of non-Hispanic white populations across the nation, and three-quarters of Utah fall into that category.
Another theory may be Utane’s desire to complete the survey. Utah and Minnesota, for example, were close to the top in the census response rate and were leaders in the census.
“Maybe people were a little overwhelmed to include those answers,” Bateman said with a smile.
The bureau had no information on whether certain areas of the state were counted more than others.
In any case, she says this is not a sign that Utah is not growing as fast as it did between 2010 and 2020. All other information published by the Census Bureau, including its population estimates for 2021, shows that it wasn’t too fast. a lot. Such data points help the federal government allocate resources.
The study, published on Thursday, mostly helps the bureau streamline the 2030 census process.
“It is important to remember that the quality of the total population in 2020 is stable and in line with the latest censuses,” said Robert Santos, director of the Census Bureau. “However, we know that there is still work to be done in planning future censuses to ensure fair coverage in the United States, and we are working to overcome any obstacles to achieving this goal.”
All future forecasts also predict Utah’s 66% growth rate over the next 40 years. As it does so, it will continue to receive a larger share of federal funding, resources and representation, given that it continues to grow faster than other states.
“If the trends that continue continue, we will probably continue to be a country that sees growth,” Bateman said. “Compared to the rest of the nation, we have many areas that are not developing or declining. The fact that we continue to develop makes us a very unique place as a whole.”
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Carter Williams is an award-winning reporter who covers general news, outdoor, history and sports for KSL.com. He previously worked for Deseret News. He was transplanted to Utah from Rochester, New York.
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