Opinion: Proposed U.S. census changes could be catastrophic for public health — SkimNews
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- Federal Register notice published Sept. 10 proposed three untested changes to the 2030 census: counting only citizens and lawful permanent residents (contrary to the 14th Amendment's 'whole number of persons' mandate), using a Jan. 3–April 1 residence window tied to tax records, and prohibiting questions on race/ethnicity and sexual orientation.
- Public comment period opened at just 33 days (due Oct. 13) but was extended to Nov. 2 after public pushback, per the source.
- U.S. Census Bureau's own list of 50 common uses of census data includes health-specific applications: hospital and clinic planning, emergency response mapping, and tracking the spread of communicable diseases.
- Health, United States and Healthy People objectives have relied on census population denominators for 40 years to report rates by race/ethnicity; banning those questions would render 'invisible' documented U.S. racialized health inequities, the author argues.
- Maternal mortality illustrates the stakes: the U.S. has higher rates than any other high-income country, and Black women with a completed college education die at higher rates than white women without a high school diploma, the source states.
- Author Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, argues the changes are untested by usual protocols and motivated solely by partisan politics aimed at shifting House apportionment.
Why it matters: The Census Bureau itself lists 50 uses for its data spanning every sector; cutting the denominator mathematically inflates every rate (same cases, smaller population), and stripping race/ethnicity questions would erase the data backbone for tracking the U.S. maternal mortality gap and other documented racialized disparities. Public comment closes Nov. 2.
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