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Statement of William G. Barron, Acting Census Bureau Director,
Regarding Census 2000 Undercount Estimates Released Today
The Presidential Members of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board today
released data that they describe as representing Census 2000 undercounts
for all fifty states and five U.S. cities.
As part of the policy of transparency for Census 2000, we have
provided extensive, perhaps unprecedented, data and other information to
our oversight bodies. This is the only way the estimates released today
could have been calculated. It appears that both the population counts and
the methodology used to calculate them are seriously flawed.
For instance, our review of the data made available to the oversight
bodies indicates that the estimated undercount for New York should be
below, not above, the national average.
It is important to note that the Census Bureau is not in a position to
release a final estimate for any state or city, and believes that the most
accurate data currently available are the unadjusted data already
released. This is because of the uncertainties discovered in analyzing
results of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation, including the comparison
with demographic analysis, as we examined the Census 2000 undercount.
Our work to resolve these uncertainties continues. Secretary Evans
and I testified before the Senate Commerce Committee today that the Census
Bureau would continue its work in this area and expects to make a
recommendation this fall as to the future potential uses of adjusted data.
While we have received many requests for the Census Bureau to release
the data currently under analysis, I ask for patience in this regard until
we can resolve the technical issues the ESCAP committee discovered.
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