NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Darian Woods and we have a very special guest joining us for today's show, Hansi

Lo Wang.

Welcome, Hansi.

Thank you, Darian.

I'm your former cubicle buddy.

That's right.

It's been a while.

It has been a while.

Hansi has been very busy for the last five years or so, covering the ins and outs of

the census for NPR, which culminated with the 2020 census.

You know, the federal government's massive attempt every 10 years to count every person

living in the US, which is a huge amount of data with huge implications.

Congressional seats, electoral college votes, voting districts, federal funding, an estimated

$1.5 trillion a year in federal tax dollars for Medicare, Medicaid, education, other

public services.

So, when we saw the news earlier this month that the 2020 census significantly undercounted

black people, Latinos and Native Americans, we knew we had to call up Hansi because

the 2020 census has political consequences, but it has economic ones too.

Where new supermarkets are open, where to build new residential communities, where to

build new homes.

...