White County commissioners are claiming the 2020 Census failed to count nearly 3,000 residents and they plan to challenge those results.
During this week’s commission meeting, Chairman Travis Turner says the county has used known residential addresses and the county's GIS technology to find people who weren't counted.
The 2020 Census said White County has a population of 28,003. That's less than the Census Bureau estimated in 2019, causing concern for county officials. Population numbers are used, among other things, to determine how much state and federal funding a county gets.
Commissioners have sent a letter to the census bureau appealing the population results for the county. Officials hope to get a response in 90 days.
Turner said other counties in the state are looking at doing what White County is doing because of the low counts in their area.
"We feel like we have a good case", said Turner.
John Sell, the county's economic development officers, said the 2010 Census put the county's population at 27,144. The bureau's 2019 estimate for the county was 30,798, almost 3,000 more than were counted in the 2020 Census.
"That causes a lot of concern," Sell said.
Conducting the 2020 Census was made more difficult because of the pandemic.
