Posted on: Friday, December 6, 2002

State may gain from new census figures

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i programs that use population-based formulas to calculate federal grant dollars may stand to gain millions of dollars following an adjustment of the state's 2000 population count yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Every state in the union and the District of Columbia showed an undercount from the latest census, Hawai'i had the second largest percentage adjustment in the country at 2.14 percent. Alaska was the largest at 2.41 percent.

What that means is that the Aloha State's population yesterday officially climbed from 1,211,537 to 1,237,511 — a gain of 25,974. In simple numbers, Hawai'i's adjustment ranked 33rd among all the states.

Undercounting in the census became an issue last year after Democrats on the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, an oversight panel, released a report pointing out that millions of Americans were not counted because the census raw data was not used.

The report figured that Hawai'i may have been deprived of $105.5 million because of an estimated undercount of 26,747.

Democrats have been calling for the use of adjusted population estimates to make up for what they say is an undercount of minorities, the poor and children. But Republicans have said adjustments would alter the constitutional purpose of the census being a raw headcount used to redraw political boundaries.

State and local governments across the country have complained that their residents are being shortchanged because billions of dollars in federal money is allocated based on the official census.

The most vulnerable programs, according to the last year's report, include Medicaid and block grants, which help states pay for childcare, vocational education and substance-abuse prevention services.

The study noted that a disproportionately higher number of people in inner cities were missed by the census, many of them minorities, children, immigrants and the homeless.

State economist Pearl Imada Iboshi said Hawai'i may indeed gain by the revised figures, but it remains to be seen by how much.

"It depends on where the people are and how much they earn,'' she said.

Reach Timothy Hurley at (808) 244-4880, or e-mail at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com.

CORRECTION: Hawai‘i’s percentage adjustment on its U.S. Census 2000 population count was not the largest in the country. Hawai‘i’s 2.14 percent was No. 2 behind Alaska's 2.41. Because of a reporter’s error, an earlier version of this story was incorrect.