Why It Matters
In 2010, the Census reflected a 4.8% undercount of American Indians and Alaskan Natives, nearly triple the amount of all other race undercounts. These failures around the Census manifest themselves in our community, leading to unjust polices based on flawed data, a shortfall of resources, and a lack of representation in the decision-making process. These repercussions are something our community knows all too well and is why the NUIFC and our partners are laser-focused to guarantee that Indian country, from coast to coast, is made visible in 2020.
The Census is the dataset that guides funding and representation around the country for a decade. It has a massive say in how resources get allocated to specific regions and groups and for many Indians, these resources are vital. Below are just a few of the major programs that use the Census to decide on funding that are critical to our people.
Education – Title I grants provide financial assistance to schools with a higher percentage of low-income students. Roughly 90 percent of all Native students attend Title I schools.
Healthcare – 43 percent of Indians are enrolled in Medicaid or some other public insurance program. This federal-state healthcare is often the only option for low-income individuals, meaning that underfunding has major consequences. Medicaid also provides some funding for the chronically underfunded Indian Health Service, another vital service for our people.
Financial Assistance – SNAP, sometimes referred to as food stamps, helps millions of low-income families keep food on their tables. More than 25 percent of Natives nationally received SNAP assistance in 2015.
The Challenge
While the drawbacks and dangers of an undercount are easy to quantify and explain, creating a solution is where the challenge comes in. To do this, we must understand where some of the biggest challenges to an accurate count are coming from.
Over 25 percent of Indians live in “hard-to-count” Census tracts, which are geographic regions that have proven difficult to accurately count. Beyond that, many Indians belong to sociodemographic groups that have also been defined as hard-to-count. Below are some of the major ones.
Poverty – Low-income households have proven extremely difficult to count. Roughly 23 percent of the Native population faces poverty, which is ten points higher than the national average.
Educational Attainment – Areas with lower educational attainment are also considered hard-to-count, and Natives trail the national average in attainment of high school degrees and post-secondary degrees. Only 83 percent of Indians have high school degrees versus the national average of 88 and only 19 percent have a BA versus the national average of 31.
Housing Insecurity – Nearly half of Natives are renters, which is another group considered hard to track due to the potential of constant movement.
Creating a national Census Initiative will require us to examine these factors and create a strategy that reaching individuals where they are.