A new report released Sunday by the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies ( IGLSS ) suggests that the Census Bureau may have undercounted gay and lesbian couples by at least 100,000. 'Left Out of the Count' outlines why same-sex couples in the Midwest and less-educated couples may have chosen not to identify as an unmarried couple for the purposes of the Census.
Since 1990 the census allowed respondents to classify themselves as an 'unmarried couple.' In 1990, 145,130 households identified as same-sex unmarried couples. That number skyrocketed to 594,691 in 2000. But IGLSS says confidentiality and other concerns caused a large number of respondents to avoid the classification.
In a survey of same-sex couples living together on the day of the census, IGLSS found that 13 percent of respondents chose not to identify as an unmarried couple and four percent did not fill out a census form. A similar online survey conducted by Witeck-Combs/Harris Interactive ( WC/HI ) found 19 percent chose not to identify as an unmarried couple. In most cases, the gay and lesbian partners classified themselves as 'Housemates / Roommates.'
The Census Bureau is expected to release new statistics about gay and lesbian couples this month. Lee Badgett, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts and the Research Director of IGLSS, says she's concerned not only about the undercount. She believes those gay and lesbian couples who did choose the unmarried couple category are also more educated and have higher incomes than their uncounted counterparts. This factor, she says, will contribute to the myth of gay affluence. 'We want to make sure that the use and discussion of the Census data is accurate,' she said.
The Census Bureau is expected to send teams into the field to test small samples of the population for accuracy of the 2000 data. Badgett says residents who are part of the new sample should stand up and be counted. 'The big factor here is how quickly the Census can keep up with the changes in the society at large. … They don't change easily, even when society has become more accepting of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in many ways,' she said.
Nearly half of the same-sex couples in the IGLSS survey and nearly three-quarters in the HI/WC survey who chose not to identify as an unmarried couple, did so because of 'lack of fit.' The IGLSS study calls for the Census Bureau to conduct research about why couples answer relationship questions in a particular way.
See iglss.org .