The U.S. Census Bureau held a news conference to discuss the release of the first local level results from the 2020 Census. States use these data on race, Hispanic origin, and the voting-age population to redraw the boundaries of their congressional and state legislative districts.

The news conference provided initial analysis of the first local level results from the 2020 Census on population change, race, ethnicity, the age 18 and over population, and housing occupancy status.

See below for Spanish soundbites and graphics.

Attributable to: Merarys Ríos-Vargas, Chief, Ethnicity and Ancestry Branch, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau

• Today, we have the special task of publishing the 2020 Census PL94-171 redistricting summary file data for states to use in redrawing their state legislative and congressional districts. These data provide the first look at the demographic characteristics of the nation by state, county, city, down to the census block level, showing how our population has changed since the 2010 Census.  While no census is perfect, we are confident that today’s redistricting results meet our high data-quality standards. 

• It is too early to speculate on undercounts for any specific demographic group, and we look forward to the release of the Post Enumeration Survey results in 2022, which will provide information on coverage of demographic groups in the 2020 Census.

• Overall, the 2020 Census results for Hispanic origin, age 18 and over, housing units and group quarters are in line with our population benchmarks.

• We want to note that 2020 Census data on race show different - but reasonable and expected distributions – when compared to the 2010 Census. These results are not surprising. They align with our research findings this past decade about the impacts of the question format on race and ethnicity reporting.

• We counted 62.1 million Hispanics or Latinos in 2020 (which represents 18.7% of the population in the United States), an increase of 23% since 2010. The number of people of Hispanic or Latino origin represent more of the total population growth (51.1%) in the United States between 2010 and 2020.

• The number of people of Hispanic or Latino origin who identified as White alone decreased by 52.9%, down from 26.7 million to 12.6 million over the 10-year period. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of people of Hispanic or Latino origin reporting more than one race increased from 3 million (6.0%) to 20.3 million (32.7%), a 567% change. We are confident these differences in racial distributions are largely due to improvements in the two separate questions design for race data collection, processing, and coding of responses, as well as demographic changes over the past ten years.

• In 2020, the Hispanic or Latino population became the largest racial or ethnic group in California, comprising 39.4% of the total population, up from 37.6% in 2010.