The Complicated History Of The U.S. Census Asking About Citizenship

NPR | By Hansi Lo Wang

Published May 17, 2018 at 4:28 PM EDT

Lawmakers are set to question the Justice Department Friday about why it requested the 2020 census to ask about citizenship. The history of using the U.S. census to ask about citizenship has many twists and turns.

Corrected: April 25, 2019 at 12:00 AM EDT

In this story, we incorrectly imply the U.S. census did not ask about citizenship status for the national head counts between 1840 and 1890. In fact, questions for the 1870 census included, "Is this person a male citizen of the United States of 21 years or upwards?"

National

Hansi Lo Wang

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him), a correspondent who joined NPR in 2010, reports on how elections, the census, the Postal Service and other parts of the U.S. government work.

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The Complicated History Of The U.S. Census Asking About Citizenship

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