You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See: How the Census Proposal Affects Children and Families of Color

The proposed census rule says the census “should be colorblind.” But removing race and ethnicity questions would not erase the differences in how communities are counted. It would make those differences harder to see.

The proposal would eliminate race and ethnicity questions from the 2030 Census and future censuses. At the same time, other proposed changes could make children and families of color more likely to be missed in the first place.

The result could be a census that misses more children of color while losing some of the most important information needed to understand and correct those gaps.

Communities of Color Are Already Undercounted

The census does not miss everyone equally. After each census, the Bureau conducts a follow-up survey to measure its accuracy. In 2020, that survey found that Black residents were undercounted by 3.3 percent, Hispanic residents by nearly 5 percent, and American Indian and Alaska Native people living on reservations by 5.6 percent. White residents, by comparison, were overcounted by 1.6 percent.

The challenge is even greater for young children. Black and Hispanic children under age 5 are missed at especially high rates, in part because they are more likely to have recently moved, live in multigenerational households, or live in rented housing.

In Virginia, the disparities extend to where families live. Before the 2020 Census, The Commonwealth Institute found that 28 percent of Hispanic Virginians, 18 percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander Virginians, and 17 percent of Black Virginians lived in areas considered hard to count. Among white Virginians, that figure was just 7 percent.

These gaps already affect how accurately communities are represented. The proposed rule risks making them harder to identify and address.

What the Proposal Would Change

Race has been included in some form on every census since 1790, and Hispanic origin has been asked on every full census form since 1980. The proposed rule would permanently eliminate both questions.

Other proposed changes could deepen existing undercounts. Concerns about immigration status checks may discourage Hispanic and immigrant families from participating. A greater reliance on tax records to determine where people live could also leave out more low-income families, who are disproportionately families of color.

Taken together, these changes could create a double problem: more children of color may be missed, and the census would have less information to show which communities were missed.

Today, race and ethnicity data help the Bureau identify undercounted groups and improve outreach in future censuses. Without those measures, it becomes much harder to know where the count fell short or whether those gaps are getting worse.

Why This Information Matters for Children

Race and ethnicity data help communities understand whether children are being served fairly and whether public programs are reaching families who need them. For advocates, policymakers, schools, and service providers across Virginia, that information helps answer important questions:

Answering these questions often begins with knowing how many children of each race and ethnicity live in a community. The census provides a foundation for that information.

And that information is increasingly important. In 2025, 52 percent of Virginia’s children were children of color, compared with 29 percent in 1990. Policymakers cannot fully understand the needs of a changing population if the country’s most comprehensive population count stops collecting these details.

Other Data Sources Cannot Replace the Census

The Census Bureau says it would continue collecting race and ethnicity data through the American Community Survey (ACS) and government records. But neither offers a complete substitute.

The ACS surveys only a sample of households each year. To produce population estimates, it relies on benchmarks drawn from the full census, including race and ethnicity counts. Removing those data from the census would weaken that foundation, especially for smaller communities where estimates are already less precise.

That matters in Virginia, where many of the commonwealth’s 133 counties and independent cities have too few children to support reliable estimates by race on their own.

Government records have limitations, too. Some do not collect race or ethnicity, others collect it inconsistently, and some rely on information provided by someone other than the child or parent. Young children also have relatively few government records, one reason they can be especially difficult to count.

Fair Representation Is Also at Stake

Race and ethnicity data from the census are used to help enforce civil rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act, Fair Housing Act, and Civil Rights Act.

In 2021, Virginia enacted its own Voting Rights Act, allowing communities to challenge local election practices that weaken the voting power of racial and language minority groups. Reliable race and ethnicity data are critical for assessing those concerns.

Local governments also use this information when drawing school board, city council, and board of supervisors districts. Without it, communities would have a harder time evaluating whether families of color have fair representation in decisions that affect their children’s schools and neighborhoods.

What We Are Asking For

We have asked the Census Bureau to withdraw the proposal and retain race and ethnicity questions in the census. We have also urged the Bureau to prioritize reducing undercounts in communities that were missed at the highest rates in 2020 through targeted outreach and partnerships with trusted local organizations.

Removing race and ethnicity questions would not make the census fairer. It would make inequities more difficult to recognize, measure, and address.

Take Action: Make Your Voice Count

If you use data to understand or serve Virginia’s children, the Census Bureau needs to hear from you. Whether you work in a school, health department, nonprofit, or local government, your experience can help explain what would be lost.

We cannot address disparities we can no longer see.