A Word of Caution When Using the Data

This census is very different from previous censuses in several significant ways. Use caution when using the data:

1. Every single data element (population, race, Hispanic origin, age, vacant housing units, etc.), except the total population for the state and housing unit counts, is injected with “noise” by the Census Bureau, using a new privacy protection method called “differential privacy.” This method, while not changing the large populations too much, significantly distorted the population count of small geographies (such as neighborhood level) and any racial/ethnic groups, particularly when they count for a small share of the population. Numbers were artificially inflated or deflated to blur the community “portrait.”
    
2. Published racial data has been significantly altered, not only by noise injection, but also by how the Census Bureau coded and processed the responses. The alteration is more significant than the changes in people’s racial identification about themselves since the last census. As a result, the 2020 Census race data are not comparable with previous censuses.
    
3. In addition, the pandemic impacted the census-taking and census result. College towns, for example, may still miss some student counts, especially of those living off campus.