America’s Changing: Census reports greater diversity than ever beforeThe 2020 census marks the first time in American history that the white population has seen a decline. Here’s what it means for the future.Just the FAQs, USA TODAYBlack, Latino and Native Americans living on reservations were undercounted at higher levels in the 2020 census than in the 2010 census, while non-Hispanic white people were overcounted, according to comparative demographic data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.The demographic tools didn’t show a statistically significant undercount or overcount in the tally of the overall population of the United States recorded on April 1, 2020.Census officials acknowledged unique challenges with the 2020 census, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns in 2020. The populations of non-white racial and ethnic groups have long been the subject of census undercounts for a variety of reasons, including distrust of government due to discriminatory treatment of people of color and a higher proportion of renters, a group that tends to have lower response rates compared to homeowners.In the 2010 census, Black people were undercounted by 2.1%, Latinos by 1.5% and American Indian and Alaska Natives living on reservations by nearly 5%. The 2020 census featured unique factors that raised concerns that undercounts of people of color could be even greater than usual. Both the COVID-19 pandemic, which essentially locked down the country just weeks before the April 1, 2020, census date, and Trump administration policies perceived as hostile to people of Latino heritage and immigrant communities, including a proposed census citizenship question that was eventually scuttled, potentially hindered response rates, especially for harder-to-reach groups, members of nongovernmental and voting rights groups said.Being undercounted carries a hefty cost, from reduced political representation during federal, state and local redistricting, to the loss of billions of dollars of government funds distributed based on community population. Thursday’s undercount estimates are based on the census’s post-enumeration survey, a parallel follow-up with some people used as a tool to measure who was missed or counted in the census. 2020 census figures released in August showed that white people remained the nation’s largest racial group, even though that population decreased by 8.6% since 2010. By comparison, the number of Asian Americans surged by about 36%, the Hispanic and Latino community jumped by about 23% and the Black population grew by about 6%.