© 2025 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY
WEDW-FM · WNPR · WPKT · WRLI-FM
Public Files Contact · ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Connecticut Factors In 'Trust' To Avoid Undercount In 2020 Census

Vanessa de la Torre
/
Connecticut Public Radio
Michelle Riordan-Nold of the Connecticut Data Collaborative talks on Tuesday about areas of Connecticut that were undercounted in the last Census.

On one side of the room was a scrolling slideshow of maps. Connecticut cities looked like they were stained with red blots — the red being an indicator of how hard it was to get a response from households during the last Census.

“Just to give you an idea, there’s 40 Census tracts in Hartford,” said Michelle Riordan-Nold, executive director of the Connecticut Data Collaborative. “And in 2010, 36 of those Census tracts were identified as Hard to Count.”

The next decennial survey isn’t until 2020. But on Tuesday in downtown Hartford, representatives from the Census Bureau, local and state government, and community groups got together to jump-start their outreach plans to get every resident counted.

It won’t be easy. Renters, people of color and immigrants are among the groups that have historically been undercounted or “Hard to Count,” meaning they are less likely to return the Census form that is intended to count every living person in the U.S.

And now with the government planning to ask a controversial question about citizenship status on the 2020 Census, a concern loomed over Tuesday’s kickoff: How to ease skepticism among residents who were already wary of the government’s intentions with the data?

“I personally believe that that was included, partly, as a scare tactic,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said. “We cannot let it succeed.”

Connecticut is part of a multi-state coalition that is suing the federal government to try to block the citizenship question from appearing on the final Census form. Critics of the question say it will dissuade undocumented immigrants from responding to the Census and, in turn, disenfranchise cities and towns with big immigrant populations.

“The Census helps determine the amount of funding that comes from the federal government for education, for housing, for transportation,” Bronin said. So when there’s an undercount in Hartford, he said that has consequences on “the daily lives of our residents.”

According to an analysis from George Washington University, Census data factors into $8 billion in federal funding that Connecticut gets a year for Medicaid, highway construction, housing vouchers, school lunches and other major programs, said Tyler Kleykamp, the state’s chief data officer.

Overall, 79 percent of state households mailed back the questionnaire during the 2010 Census.

Jeff Behler, a regional director for the Census Bureau, said it would be illegal for Census employees to share a respondent’s private information. But he acknowledged the fears over the citizenship question, and said in the past, people have been able to skip a particular question on the Census and still be counted.

But Census officials would still like the full questionnaire to be filled out in 2020, Behler said, and they think they can accomplish that with a strategy discussed Tuesday: Partnering with trusted community groups or leaders who would encourage residents to participate, whether it’s through a barbershop chat or a church sermon that ties into the Census.    

“When we think of those communities that maybe they don’t trust the government — they think we’re going to take their data and give it to some other law enforcement agency — we find out who is their trusted voice,” Behler said. “Maybe it’s their church pastor. So we have an event at their church. And on Sunday, the pastor’s talking about how Mary and Joseph were going to Bethlehem to be counted.”

Connecticut residents should expect to get their Census forms in 15 months. For the first time, people can fill out their questionnaire online or over the phone, where it will be offered in a dozen different languages in addition to English. The mail-in option is still around.

People who do not respond can anticipate a Census worker knocking on their door in spring 2020.

Vanessa de la Torre is Chief Content Officer at Connecticut Public, overseeing all content with a mission to inform, educate and inspire diverse audiences across the state, including on radio, television and our organization’s 60-plus digital platforms.

Fund the Facts

You just read trusted, local journalism that’s free for everyone, thanks to donors like you.

If that matters to you, now is the time to give. Join the 50,000+ members powering honest reporting and a more connected — and civil! — Connecticut.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Fund the Facts

You just read trusted, local journalism that’s free for everyone, thanks to donors like you.

If that matters to you, now is the time to give. Join the 50,000+ members powering honest reporting and a more connected — and civil! — Connecticut.

Connecticut Public’s journalism is made possible, in part by funding from Jeffrey Hoffman and Robert Jaeger.