Every ten years, the Constitution mandates that the federal government count the entire population on U.S. soil. This data is used for a variety of reasons including the apportionment of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, deciding how district lines are drawn at all levels of government, and allocating more than $800 billion in federal funding to programs that are vital to the well-being of families. On April 1, 2019, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights launched the Census Counts campaign, marking the one year countdown to Census Day 2020. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) joined the day of action, encouraging all Latino communities to participate. NHMC also continues to work on expanding digital access, in part, to ensure that Latinos are able to participate in the data collection online. Latino populations are regularly undercounted in the census. The pending citizenship question and Census Bureau budget cuts will only make this worse in 2020. The Census Counts campaign was designed to raise awareness about how census information is used and highlight the importance of including all Latinos, including those in hard to reach and disconnected communities. The data collected has a direct impact on funding for health programs, transportation options, education opportunities and funding for housing in areas that need it the most.
