Did the last census overcount Asian Americans? It depends on where you look
The U.S. Census Bureau said there was a national overcount of Asian Americans in its 2020 tally. But a new report finds Asian Americans may have also been left out of some state and county numbers.
A new report is complicating an unusual finding from the U.S. Census Bureau's own report card on the accuracy of its 2020 head count of the country's population: a national overcount of Asian Americans.
The tallying of U.S. residents more than once at different addresses drives overcounting in census results, which — despite their flaws — are used to determine political representation, guide federal funding and inform policymaking and research across the United States.
The bureau estimates it had a net overcount rate of 2.62% for Asian Americans in the last census. That marked the first time Asian Americans had a statistically significant overcount at the national level since the bureau started trying to measure
