Small and Illegal Places Pose Challenge for Census Takers

Census takers in New York City will face the tough challenge of tracking down people living in often illegally-built and hard to find small rooms and apartments.

1 minute read

February 24, 2010, 9:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg

"As the federal Census Bureau starts its most ambitious effort ever to count the country, no other city presents a bigger challenge than New York, with its huge immigrant population crammed into easily missed and often illegal nooks and crannies.

In all, the city has provided Census officials the addresses of at least 127,000 apartments or homes - nearly 4 percent of all the housing in the city - that the bureau did not have. Most of the addresses are in one, two and three-family homes that had been subdivided, legally and illegally."

Historically, census response rates have been lower in New York City than other American cities, and officials expect a similar challenge during this year's decennial Census.

FULL STORY: New York’s Nooks Are a Challenge to Census Takers

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 in The New York Times

Housing Social / Demographics New York Census 2010 Census Undocumented Migrants Illegal Apartments View More

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