Justice

A Visual History of the U.S. Census

Vulnerable communities are bracing for an undercount in 2020. It’s a familiar story that traces back to the Articles of Confederation.
Ariel Aberg-Riger

Editor’s note: Since publication, the U.S. Justice Department has abandoned plans to add a highly contested citizenship question to the 2020 Census. But there remain many reasons the Census is likely to undercount vulnerable communities. The political and social consequences of such an undercount would be significant and—as CityLab’s visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger reports—an all-too-familiar story.