Has the Census Bureau ever made an effort to count American civilians living overseas?
After lengthy efforts by AARO and its coalition partners, the Census Bureau agreed to conduct a voluntary test census in 2004 in three countries: Kuwait, France and Mexico. The response rate in 2004 was less than five percent of the State Department’s estimate of Americans living in the three test countries, a rate too low to have any statistical significance. The lack of response, in AARO’s opinion, was due mainly to three factors: • The Bureau’s outreach program among overseas Americans was inadequate. Among other things, no attempt was made to mail a questionnaire to an address – a standard procedure in the U.S. • The reasons given for the survey were unclear and unconvincing. Under Congressional guidelines, the Census Bureau was not allowed to state that one of the main purposes of the test was for apportionment of House seats. • Most of the $7.8 million appropriated for the test was spent by the Census Bureau internally, in a budget not specific to this program.
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