Did the last census overcount Asian Americans? It depends on where you look

Did the last census overcount Asian Americans? It depends on where you look Enlarge this image toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images A new report is complicating an unusual finding from the U.S. Census Bureau's own report card on the accuracy of its 2020 head count of the country's population: a national overcount of Asian Americans. That's according to a report recently released by Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, the leading national advocacy group on census participation among Asian Americans. "What we long knew and suspected, and what our new report shows, is that that aggregate national number actually hides what's happening for the community," says Terry Ao Minnis, senior director of census and voting programs at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC. Sponsor Message Focusing on just the national overcount of Asian Americans could feed into the "model minority" myth The report's findings — which come from comparing calculations based on 2020 census responses and the bureau's annual population estimates — offer a "useful first effort" in better understanding how well Asian Americans were counted, says Bill O'Hare, a demographer and former research fellow at the bureau.