The U.S. Census Bureau has proposed major changes for the 2030 decennial census, including removing long-standing questions on race and ethnicity and excluding non-citizens without green cards. Civil rights advocates warn these changes violate the Fourteenth Amendment and will degrade data critical for civil rights enforcement and local planning. Concurrently, the CDC has proposed a redesign of its annual health survey that removes key disability questions, drawing sharp criticism from advocates who warn of severe undercounting.
Proposed removal of race and ethnicity questions
- ▪Civil rights organizations argue that race and ethnicity data from the census are essential for enforcing civil rights laws, including the Fair Housing Act and the Voting Rights Act.
- ▪Denice Ross of the Federation of American Scientists stated that proponents of the Census Bureau's proposal argue that race and ethnicity data are no longer necessary.
- ▪The United States Census Bureau has proposed removing questions about race and ethnicity from the 2030 decennial census, which has historically included race questions since 1790.
- ▪Public and private statistical datasets rely on decennial census race and ethnicity data as a baseline denominator to weight sample surveys.
Exclusion of non-citizens from the 2030 census
- ▪Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene advocated for a new United States census that would only count citizens to redraw congressional districts.
- ▪Meeta Anand of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights warned that excluding non-citizens from the 2030 census could suppress response rates and lead to inaccurate administrative records.
- ▪The Census Bureau's proposed changes for the 2030 census would exclude non-citizens who do not hold green cards, including students, H-1B visa holders, refugees, asylees, and DACA recipients.
- ▪Meeta Anand of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights stated that the Census Bureau's proposed changes for the 2030 census lack evidence of testing to ensure accuracy.
Public comment on census changes
- ▪The public comment period for the Census Bureau's proposed changes to the 2030 census is open until October 13, 2026, according to Meeta Anand of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
- ▪Meeta Anand of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights recommended that people visit the Hands Off Our Census website to learn how to quickly submit comments.
Proposed changes to the National Health Interview Survey
- ▪In a 2025 memo, Stephen Blumberg of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that the proposed survey redesign would not provide the desired depth of information on functioning and disability.
- ▪The proposed National Health Interview Survey redesign would reduce the adult questionnaire from 482 questions to 150, eliminating questions about hearing aids, cognition, fatigue, and mobility supports.
- ▪In August 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics proposed a redesign of the National Health Interview Survey to remove several disability-related questions.
- ▪Disability advocates, including Katy Neas of The Arc, warn that the proposed health survey changes will result in significant undercounting of Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The Fourteenth Amendment and the census
- ▪The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution erased the three-fifths clause to establish that the census must count whole persons.
- ▪The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution requires the decennial census to count all persons, representing all inhabitants of the country.
Practical uses of census data
- ▪Following Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans utilized census data to renegotiate local garbage pickup contracts based on population changes.
- ▪State and local governments utilize census data to plan emergency management, hospital capacity, transportation infrastructure, and local public services such as garbage collection.
Debatable claims
- ▪The US census should exclude non-citizens without permanent residency
- ▪Race and ethnicity data are no longer necessary for the decennial census
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