What Coronavirus Means for the 2020 Census

THE UNITED STATES is currently undertaking its population census, the once-a-decade effort to count every single person living here. More than 150 other countries will join in this world census round—the 10-year period centered on 2020, and around 90 percent of the world’s population has already been or will be counted.

But while impressive on a human scale, a modern census is technologically unspectacular. The American questionnaire asks just seven questions of each person, with a few more for each household as a whole. Counting generously, the government is collecting...

At college dormitories and student apartments across the U.S., census forms will be piling up — but many run the risk of not being filled in.

The spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. has coincided with the start of data collection for the 2020 census.

This may not affect the process for most people who are self-isolating at home. But for students, it could well affect where and if they are counted – and that could have big implications.

The rapid spread of the virus has meant that most...