Who Gets Counted and Who Does Not?

Are we counting all citizens? All people? Or something else?

The 1st Amendment authorizing the taking of a national census every ten years does not restrict participation to US citizens only. At the time the Bill of Rights was drafted and approved, the only people acknowledged as having the right to participate in government was solely extended to free, white males who owned property. This single group represented the interests of all other people living in the United States.

Ironically, enslaved people of all ages and genders, although considered as “property not people” by their white slave holders, were also counted, each as three fifths of a person up until the 1870 Census. Prior to 1900, Native Americans were rarely included in census taking, and are not identified in the 1790-1840 censuses. In 1860 Native Americans residing off the reservation are identified for the first time and, beginning with the 1900 census, they are enumerated on reservations as well as in the general population

Although the 14th Amendment specifically confers US citizenship to all persons born in or naturalized in the United States, nothing in the US Constitution precludes representation in the census of non-citizens living in the U.S. The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution does begin with the words, “We the People…”

Who is not counted? The apportionment calculation is based upon the total resident population of the 50 states, excluding:

• Individuals living on "foreign soil" within the United States, including the embassies, ministries, legations, consulates, and chancelleries of other nations
• Citizens of other nations temporarily visiting or traveling (but not residing) in the United States
• Residents of the District of Columbia or of any of the U.S. commonwealths and territories, jurisdictions whose residents are counted in the decennial censuses but do not have the same type of congressional representation as the Constitution provides to the residents of the 50 states.