Six places in the South and West will host practice runs four years before the 2030 U.S. census, a nationwide head count that helps determine political power and the distribution of federal funds.
Residents of western Texas, tribal lands in Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Western North Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Huntsville, Alabama, will be encouraged to fill out practice census questionnaires starting in the spring of 2026.
Census Bureau officials said the statistical agency hopes the practice counts will help it learn how to tally better populations undercounted in the 2020 census, improve methods utilized in 2030, test its messaging, and appraise its ability to process data as it is being gathered.
The six test sites were chosen for various reasons, including the desire to include rural areas where some residents don’t receive mail or have little or no internet service; tribal areas; dorms, care facilities or military barracks; fast-growing locations with new construction; and places with varying unemployment rates.
Ahead of the last census in 2020, the only start-to-finish test of the head count was held in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2018.
According to the 2020 census results, the black population had a net undercount of 3.3%, while it was almost 5% for Hispanics and 5.6% for American Indians and Native Alaskans living on reservations.
