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Janey to formally contest Census Bureau's Boston population numbers

Acting Mayor Kim Janey announced today she will formally contest the Census Bureau's Boston head count of 675,647, saying it leaves out significant numbers of students, inmates and foreign-born residents.

Every Boston resident deserves an accurate Census count. This is required by our Constitution and is critical for Boston to receive its fair share of federal funding to support our most vulnerable populations and elected representation at all levels

She said the federal count of college students living in Boston is likely short by 5,000, that 500 inmates at Suffolk County's Boston jails were not included and that the census tracts with particularly low self reporting were those heavily populated by either college students, foreign-born residents or both, possibly due to both Covid-19 and distrust of government head counters in immigrant communities.

In 2020, officials had estimated that Boston had reached a population of closer to 690,0000.

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Comments

The problem is that you cannot be in two places at once (when you're not anywhere at all).

Example: My son counted as a Medford resident, even though he had a dorm room in Amherst until mid-June.

Why? Because he spent about two months of 2020 in Amherst, and was living at home when it came to be census time.

It sucks and is kind of an undercount because it was such a messed up year, but the reality is that Boston cannot claim residents who were not in Boston when they were enumerated by the census.

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According to the Census Bureau’s Official Residence Criteria for the 2020 Census, college students will be counted at their “usual residence” on April 1, 2020 or where they live and sleep “most of the time.”

This means that college students will be counted at their college address (either on- or off-campus), even if they are staying at their parents’ or guardians’ home on Census Day while on break, vacation, or due to COVID-19 closures.

There's rules to follow so that everyone is counted in a consistent manner.

https://www.prb.org/resources/coronavirus-and-the-2020-census-where-shou...

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