Stand Up and Be Counted
Census Undercounting Endangers Federal Funding to City of Miami Beach
By Lee Molloy
The first census of the U.S. population was taken in 1790, at which time there were just six questions asked, most of which sound incredible in today’s society. The survey included accounting for the number of white males, the number of white females, the number of free persons and the number of slaves in a household. The total population recorded across the 13 original states was 3.9 million — a number which, according to Rafael De La Portilla, a senior partnership specialist at the U.S. Census Bureau, did not please President George Washington, who anticipated a much higher count.
More than 200 years later, that reaction is still being echoed — in Miami Beach.
City officials claim that, at roughly 88,000 residents, the census conducted in 2000 undercounted the number of people who call Miami Beach home. READ MORE |
