A major census test faces cutbacks -- with postal workers tapped to help count

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NPR

Updated February 2, 2026 6:23 PM ET


The Trump administration is scaling back plans for this year's field test of the 2030 census, raising concerns about the Census Bureau's ability to produce a reliable population tally for redistributing political representation and federal funding in the next decade. The 2026 test was designed to help the bureau improve the accuracy of the United States' upcoming once-a-decade head count.

A mix of communities in six states, as well as a national sample of households, was expected to take part in the experiment. But the agency is now set to reduce the number of test sites to two — Huntsville, Ala., and Spartanburg, S.C. — while adding plans to try replacing temporary census workers with U.S. Postal Service staff, according to a Federal Register notice that was made available for public inspection Monday before its official publication.

The bureau is also cutting a plan to provide Spanish- and Chinese-language versions of the census test's online form, which is now set to be available only in English. Households can start using the form to respond sometime in the spring, the bureau's website now says, and if they don't, they may get a visit from a census or postal worker.

Spokespeople for the bureau and its parent agency, the Commerce Department, did not immediately respond to NPR's questions, including those about what prompted these changes. In a statement Monday announcing the "launch of the 2026 Census Test," the bureau said it "remains committed to conducting the most accurate count in history for the 2030 Census and looks forward to the continued partnership with local communities."

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/02/02/nx-s1-5696576/us-census-bureau-usps-2026-operational-test

[2naSalit]

1. This is bullshit...

Last edited Tue Feb 3, 2026, 07:30 AM - Edit history (1)

That they think postal workers have time to do the work of enumerators and online census is illegal as are some of the questions they intend to add.

Whomever came up with this stupid shit has no idea how the census is conducted and only intends to fuck it up so they can just arbitrarily assign House Districts so that they never lose.

Or fuck it up such that there can be no realistic tally.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. The only good thing is that assuming there is no complete and total coup

the next Census in 2030 will NOT have him or his ilk in office.

[2naSalit]

3. Indeed...

That was banging around in my head while I was reading that.

I've worked the decennial census in a low level supervisory position and it was designed a long time ago and is a solid long term study, if you will - conducted by John Q Public, that alterations are obviously and purely political.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. And this upcoming one will be critical

just due to how 45's shenanigans with trying to put a "citizenship" question on the 2020 one while the pandemic basically blew up the visitation process (even as the rank and file tried to do the best that they could during that chaos). So the counts are most likely lower than they should have been.

[2naSalit]

6. That one was a mess...

I hope we rid ourselves of this scourge really soon.

[Vinca]

5. Oh, wonderful. It currently takes 2 weeks to get a piece of mail from a town 5 miles away. Aren't postal

workers stretched to the limit as it is?

[maliaSmith]

7. Using USPS employees on census

I don't think the three Postal unions representing clerks, carriers and rural carriers will approve their employees working on census. It's a violation of their national contract.

[Bayard]

8. trump will be long dead by 2030, and Dems/sanity will be back in charge