Officials outside of the US Census Bureau made the decision to speed up efforts to complete the 2020 census, a move likely to decrease the accuracy of the decennial survey, according to a report released on Monday.
The report from the commerce department’s office of inspector general (OIG), the agency’s official watchdog, offers some of the clearest evidence yet of how a decision to accelerate the census could lead to problems with the quality of the data it produces. Inaccurate data would be deeply consequential because it is used to draw electoral districts, allocate $1.5tn in federal funds, and make decisions about where to build schools, roads and other necessities.
The constitutionally mandated survey is conducted just once every 10 years. The bureau, part of the commerce department, is planning to end counting on 30 September and produce processed data used to determine how many seats each state gets in the US House by 31 December. That timeline could be complicated by a…
