Can Cities Save the Census? A Local Framework for Our Nation’s First Digital Count

Abstract

Our democratic institutions have never been more important or more vulnerable, and the United States Census is no exception. Every decade since 1790, the 228-year-old institution has conducted a count of our nation’s population to determine both congressional apportionment and the annual distribution of federal funding—now over $800 billion every year. The census provides our nation’s foundational dataset, the basis upon which so much other data is based. It is used in research, algorithms, journalism, business and infrastructure planning among other things. In many ways it creates the reality upon which our institutions, our lives, and our futures are built. It is the people’s data, a shared public asset that is becoming increasingly important in a data-driven world.