Photo: Photo Courtesy of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston city officials are taking a stance against the United States Census Bureau's 2020 Census count of Boston's total population, citing that their number doesn't factor in the thousands of college students, foreign-born residents, and people in correctional facilities.
The office of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement on Tuesday that research from the Boston Planning and Development Agency shows that the U.S. Census population for the city as 675,647, undercuts the actual number. In addition, the City is countering the once-a-decade Census on count case coverage issues and racial and ethnic classification changes for the 2020 census.
Mayor Wu says an accurate count is pivotal to the City's planning boards, federal funding received, and allocation of public resources among the neighborhoods.
"Boston deserves an accurate census count across every neighborhood and community. This count is the foundation to assess the needs of all of our communities, ensuring that Boston receives crucial federal resources, and it should reflect our full numbers," Wu said.
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With the Census report's Group Quarters Population count, the City claims that around 6,000 students and 500 residents at the Suffolk County Department of Corrections were not included in the final number.
"Much of the count happened during the pandemic and in a time when the city's numbers weren't reflecting our true population, especially in certain communities we need an accurate count," Wu said.
Other points of disagreement included the Race Classification of Boston, which officials say reclassified the processing of race and ethnicity data and resulted in an uptick in people selecting "some other race," and "two more races" categories instead of an actual demographic. Boston city officials say that because of the reclassification, 76 percent of Hispanics in Boston chose or were placed into the "some other race" category.
The City supplied a list of implications related to the reclassifications from the Census Bureau.
WBZ's Karyn Regal (@Karynregal) reports.
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