Foreign-born Residents in San Diego County May Raise Over $1.2B in Census Related Funding

There are few places in the United States with a foreign-born population like San Diego County with the potential to raise over $1 billion in census related funding. Recently, our staff was invited by the San Diego Union Tribue to co-author an article on the subject along with the Nile Sister’s, another San Diego non-profit agency working to promote a complete and accurate census 2020 count in San Diego. Read the full article here.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly a quarter of all San Diego residents were born outside of the United States. Additionally, the National States Geographic Information Council reports that each person who responds to the census contributes approximately $1,500 in public funding toward their neighborhood. According to these projections, the more than 830,000 foreign-born residents living in San Diego County would collectively generate over $1.2 billion in census related funding for the region.

To put this amount in perspective, $1.2 billion is roughly the amount of money it costs to operate the San Diego Unified School District, California’s second-largest school district, for one year. Alternatively, $1.2 billion would off-set the recently proposed 10% cut to the city of San Diego’s budget three times over.

Furthermore, seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are apportioned based on state populations, which is determined by the census data. Any shifts in political representation at this level may produce effects that are felt nationwide for many years to come. This fact is particularly noteworthy in California, which includes 12 of the nation’s 25 cities with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents.

To be sure, every person in San Diego, in California, and across the nation have much at stake when it comes to ensuring every foreign-born resident is counted during the current 2020 census.