White County Appealing 2020 Census Results

White County and two Georgia municipalities are appealing the results of the 2020 Census.

The 2020 Census determines how $1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed throughout the nation.

Each person in Georgia not counted equals a loss of $2,500 per year in federal and state funding.

Over the next decade, that equates to a loss of $25,000 per person.

According to a report in the Associated Press, White County officials say they were stunned when the 2020 census said the county had 28,003 residents.

A Census Bureau estimate from 2019 had put the county’s population at 30,798.

The county is home to the town of Helen, a tourist draw modeled on a Bavarian alpine village.

An analysis by the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission, a nonprofit agency that provides planning help to communities in the region, said half of the county’s census blocks had incorrect housing counts.

White County’s community and economic development, told AP they’re concerned about long-term impacts, not qualifying for grants, not getting as many dollars as they need for schools, and other federal and state help that is based on the census.

Although the 2020 census put the number of homes at 13,535, it should have been 15,286, according to their analysis.

Two other municipalities, Chester, Georgia in Dodge County and Glenville in Glenn County in South Georgia also claim the 2020 Census results were wrong.

Both are home to State prisons and the city officials believe inmates may not have been counted, along with a miscount of homes.

The scope of appeals allowed by the Census Bureau is narrow — mistakes in recording boundaries or housing skipped during data processing.

According to the report, revisions to population and housing totals were made to about 1% of the nation’s 39,000 governments after the 2010 census.

The census challenges won’t change the number of congressional seats each state gets or the numbers used for redrawing political districts.

Other communities have signaled they plan to challenge their census numbers, including several college towns and the cities of Boston and Detroit.