It is very important for a state to have its entire population counted, otherwise it might lose money as well as representatives in Congress. In addition, politicians use census data to determine the political boundaries for literally thousands of state and local legislative seats. The federal government uses census data to distribute money for social programs, hospitals, roads, schools, and other government projects. People also use census information in their daily lives. Developers of shopping malls use census data to determine where the richest people live.
Rescue workers use census data to conduct disaster relief.
When Hurricane Andrew devastated Florida in 1992, rescue workers used census information to estimate the number of people missing block by block in towns in south Florida. The census is not perfect, and as a result some people do not get counted. The Census Bureau estimates that the 2000 count missed nearly 3 million people, mostly minorities, poor people, and children. People in rural areas, inner cities and homeless shelters are often accidentally left uncounted because they are harder to reach. Many Americans living overseas were not counted for the same reason.