Census Bureau Plans a Citizenship Question in Its 2030 Census Test — the First in 75 Years

The Census Bureau disclosed plans to use a survey form containing a citizenship question in its field test for the 2030 census, with test sites in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina. A citizenship question has not appeared on the decennial census in roughly 75 years; it currently appears only on the American Community Survey. Trump's attempt to add one to the 2020 census was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2019, and the related executive orders were rescinded under President Biden.

The decennial count drives congressional apportionment and federal funding, so anything that suppresses response rates in immigrant communities carries representational and fiscal consequences — the concern at the center of the 2019 litigation. Census experts also questioned the methodology, noting an ACS-style form would not validly test 2030 census operations; one consultant called the change "alarming."

On February 19, House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick demanding the administration abandon the plan. No litigation over the 2026 test was reported in the sources reviewed.