The Trump administration has pared back a planned set of practice-test locations for the 2030 Census, according to a notice the Commerce Department submitted ahead of the test’s start. The practice test, which began Monday, will be run only in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, with the Commerce Department set to formally publish the change on Tuesday. The Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau.
The notice eliminates four of the six sites that had been included when the Census Bureau announced the locations in 2024. Those remaining sites had been chosen across a mix of geographies and community types that officials said would help evaluate new approaches, while the revised plan focuses the testing work in just two metro areas.
In its prior announcements, the Census Bureau had said the six original test sites were selected for different reasons, including a goal of including rural areas where some residents do not receive mail or have little or no internet service. The bureau also said the selection included tribal land and fast-growing locations, along with sites tied to residents considered traditionally hard to count, including dorms, care facilities, and military barracks.
The updated list removes additional locations that had been slated for the practice test, including Colorado Springs, Colorado; tribal lands in Arizona; western North Carolina; and western Texas. The Census Bureau did not immediately respond to an emailed inquiry about why the number of test sites was reduced. In a statement on its website, the Census Bureau said it “remains committed to conducting the most accurate count in history for the 2030 Census and looks forward to the continued partnership with local communities.”
The practice test is designed to give the Census Bureau the chance to learn how to better tally people and households that were undercounted in the 2020 census, while also improving methods planned for 2030. It also is intended to help test messaging and the bureau’s ability to process data as it is being gathered. Among the methods being tested for 2030 is the use of U.S. Postal Service workers to carry out tasks that previously had been done by census workers.
Mark Mather, an associate vice president at the Population Reference Bureau, said the revised approach would reduce the opportunity to evaluate how well the bureau’s methods work in the kinds of places that require the most testing. “The Census Bureau would be essentially flying blind into communities that need testing most — tribal lands, rural areas with limited connectivity and places with historically low response rates,” Mather said. He added, “You can’t fix what you don’t test,” arguing that the elimination of multiple sites amounts to “a step backward.”
Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former congressional staffer who consults on census issues, described the changes as a negative signal for the bureau’s preparations. Lowenthal called the site eliminations “an ominous sign for the 2030 Census,” and said, “The new plan for 2026 is unclear.”
Ahead of the last census in 2020, officials conducted the only start-to-finish headcount test in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2018. Plans for other tests were canceled because of a lack of funding from Congress. The decennial head count determines how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets, and it also guides the distribution of $2.8 trillion in annual federal spending.