The State of Census 2020 Is Distrust

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in April whether the Trump administration can make good on its plans to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. But Americans are already resolved on the matter: Overwhelming majorities from across the political spectrum agree that a citizenship question could negatively affect the accuracy of next year’s census efforts.

Three-quarters (76 percent) of Americans say that adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census is at least somewhat likely to mess up the count, according to a new poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and The Atlantic. And a majority of Americans (53 percent) think it is very likely that the census will not get an accurate count if the Trump administration adds a citizenship question.