U.S. Census Bureau Scales Back 2026 Field Test, Proposes Citizenship Question
The U.S. Census Bureau's 2026 field test for the 2030 census has been scaled back to two locations, according to recent announcements from the Trump administration. The administration is also exploring the involvement of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) staff in place of temporary census workers and has proposed including a question on U.S. citizenship status for test participants.
These changes have prompted concerns regarding the accuracy of future population counts, which are used for political representation and the distribution of federal funding.
Test Scope Reductions and Logistics
The 2026 field test, initially planned to encompass a mix of communities across six states and a national household sample, has been reduced to two locations: Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Huntsville, Alabama. Approximately 155,000 households in these areas are scheduled to participate between April and September.
Plans to offer the online census test form in Spanish and Chinese have been eliminated, with the form now available only in English. Several locations initially included in the test have been removed, including rural areas in western Texas and Indigenous tribal lands in Arizona and North Carolina, specifically the Fort Apache Reservation, San Carlos Reservation, and the Qualla Boundary.
These adjustments follow prior delays in preparation for the census test due to uncertain congressional funding and issues with finalizing a staffing plan. The bureau has also experienced staff departures over the past year and previously disbanded its external advisory committees, while not updating congressional overseers. A plan to contact administrators of group-living quarters (such as college dorms and nursing homes) for the test was awaiting White House agency approval, but was not mentioned in the revised test announcement.
Proposed Citizenship Question
The Trump administration has announced that participants in the 2026 field test may be asked about their U.S. citizenship status, a proposal included in a regulatory filing for the test. This follows previous statements by President Trump advocating for a census that would exclude individuals residing in the country without legal status. Such an exclusion could affect redistricting efforts and the allocation of congressional seats and Electoral College votes.
Several Republican lawmakers in Congress support proposals to omit some or all non-U.S. citizens from census numbers used for apportionment. The 14th Amendment specifies that census apportionment counts must include the "whole number of persons in each state." Additionally, multiple GOP-led states have initiated federal lawsuits to compel the Census Bureau to subtract residents without legal status and those with immigrant visas from these counts. Missouri's lawsuit seeks their exclusion from all census counts, including those used for distributing federal funds.
The questionnaire for the test utilizes a form from the annual American Community Survey, which is more extensive than recent national census forms. It includes questions on citizenship status, income sources, and housing features such as the presence of a bathtub or shower and connection to a public sewer system. The reason for using this specific survey form for the census test has not been clarified by spokespersons from the Census Bureau or the Commerce Department.
Notably, the form does not incorporate changes to racial and ethnic categories approved by the Biden administration for the 2030 census and other federal surveys. These changes include new checkboxes for "Middle Eastern or North African" and "Hispanic or Latino." A White House agency official stated in December that the Trump administration is considering reversing these modifications.
Federal law prohibits the Census Bureau from releasing information that could identify an individual to any entity, including other federal agencies and law enforcement. The results from the 2026 test are not intended for immediate redistribution of political representation but are designed to inform preparations for the 2030 census, which includes a report on planned question topics due to Congress in 2027.
During the first Trump administration, the U.S. Supreme Court prevented a citizenship question from being added to the 2020 census but did not issue a ruling on whether a president could exclude individuals without legal status from apportionment counts. In a recent filing to the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Census Bureau stated that the form for this year's census test "will ask no questions of a sensitive nature." The OMB is responsible for deciding whether the proposed questions will proceed.
Consideration of Postal Worker Involvement
The bureau plans to explore replacing temporary census workers with U.S. Postal Service (USPS) staff. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has supported this approach, citing potential cost savings. However, a 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report previously indicated that using higher-paid mail carriers instead of temporary census workers is not cost-effective. USPS referred questions about postal workers' roles to the Commerce Department, stating its participation in the test.
Concerns Raised
Terri Ann Lowenthal, a census consultant and former congressional staff director, expressed concern that the changes could lead to a less accurate count, particularly in rural and American Indian communities. Census advocates have also voiced concerns that the proposed citizenship question may discourage participation from historically undercounted populations, such as households with immigrants and mixed-status families. These concerns are raised amidst increased immigration enforcement and perceived ambiguities in government data handling.
Previous research conducted by the Census Bureau has indicated that the inclusion of a citizenship question would likely compromise the accuracy of the count by reducing response rates among populations that are already less likely to respond.