Census Differential Privacy Exploration (2019)

The U.S. Census Bureau has changed the way it ensures privacy for the 2020 Census. The new method is called Differential Privacy (DP). To help people assess some of the implications and unintended consequences of Differential Privacy, Caliper is providing several interactive maps for public inspection.

Differential privacy distorts populations for Census Blocks and for all political subdivisions within each State. It is clear from these maps that the population changes will have an effect on redistricting because, had DP been used in 2010, legislative district boundaries would have been drawn differently.