The briefcase of a census taker is seen as she knocks on the door of a residence, Aug. 11, 2020, in Winter Park, Fla. (AP Photo / John Raoux, File)

Eleven small cities in Illinois and Iowa are the only municipalities so far to have signed agreements with the U.S. Census Bureau for a second count of their residents in 2024 and 2025, in a repeat of what happened during the 2020 census. The first year in which the special censuses can be conducted is 2024.

People look up at Christmas lights as crowds stroll around downtown Lisbon's Chiado neighborhood, Saturday evening, Dec. 23, 2023. (AP Photo / Armando Franca)

The growth rate for the United States in the past year was 0.53%, about half the worldwide figure. The U.S. added 1.7 million people and will have a population on New Year's Day of 335.8 million people.

FILE - Maureen Reid, left, and her guide dog, Gaston, cross the intersection of Wood Street and Roosevelt Avenue with Sandy Murillo, center, and Geovanni Bahena, relying on an audible signal for the blind, on April 26, 2023, in Chicago. (Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo, file)

Disability advocates say the change would artificially reduce their numbers by almost half. At stake are not only whether people with disabilities get vital resources for housing, schools or program benefits but whether people with disabilities are counted accurately in the first place, experts said.

The toes of a baby are seen DHR Health, July 29, 2020, in McAllen, Texas. Dutton and Wrenlee are on the rise but they’re no match for champs Liam and Olivia as the top baby names in the U.S. last year. (AP Photo / Eric Gay, File)

The Social Security Administration released the annual list Friday. The agency tracks baby names in each state based on applications for Social Security cards, with names dating to 1880.

Census form. (WTTW News)

The federal government’s standards haven’t been changed since 1997, two decades after they were created as part of an effort to collect consistent race and ethnicity data across federal agencies when handling censuses, federal surveys and application forms for government benefits.

Students at work at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in Mount Greenwood. (WTTW News)

The number of farmers in Illinois is declining and the most recent census data shows the average age of a farmer is nearly 60.

Workers, community members, and labor organization Arise Chicago rally at the 26th Street headquarters, Sept. 30, 2021. (WTTW News).

Census data says volunteering has declined in Chicago, while new research says previously collected data doesn’t include the wide range of community organizing in the city, oftentimes leaving out the work of Black, Latino and working-class people.

(WTTW News)

The story had been that people were leaving Illinois, and that the population dropped by about 18,000. But the U.S. Census Bureau came out last week with fresh numbers in its post-enumeration survey that show the reverse: The state gained some 250,000 people between 2010 and 2020.

(Courtesy of U.S. Census Bureau)
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Last week, the U.S. National Archives released U.S. census records from 1950, granting public access to files that documented more than 150 million people and the areas they lived, the jobs they had, and much more.

People ride a new indoor tourist attraction called RiseNY just off Times Square in Manhattan’s Theater District in New York City on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (AP Photo / Ted Shaffrey)

Metropolitan Los Angeles lost almost 176,000 residents, the San Francisco area saw a loss of more than 116,000 residents and greater Chicago lost more than 91,000 people from 2020 to 2021. The San Jose, Boston, Miami and Washington areas also lost tens of thousands of residents primarily from people moving away.

(WTTW News)

The 2020 Census undercounted Latino, Black and Indigenous people. That’s according to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau itself.

Judy Ware poses for a photo outside of her restaurant in Chicago, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. Judy Ware is preparing to resume table service at the Ranch after struggling through the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh)
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Chicago neighborhood Roseland and suburban Lansing, both enclaves of roughly 30,000 people, reflect how Black migration patterns in the 21st century are changing the makeup of metropolitan areas nationwide. 

A form for the U.S. Census 2020 is photographed on March 18, 2020. The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday, March 10, 2022, released two reports which measure how well the once-a-decade head count tallied every U.S. resident and whether certain populations were undercounted or overrepresented in the count. Any undercounts in various populations can shortchange the amount of funding and political representation they get over the next decade. (John Roark / The Idaho Post-Register via AP, File)

Even though the 2020 census missed an unexpectedly small percentage of the total U.S. population given the unprecedented challenges it faced, the increase in undercounts among some minority groups prompted an outcry from civil rights leaders who blamed political interference by the Trump administration.

Light afternoon traffic flows in downtown Dallas, Aug. 12, 2021. U.S. population growth dipped to its lowest rate since the nation’s founding during the first year of the pandemic as the coronavirus curtailed immigration, delayed pregnancies and killed hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, according to figures released Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero, file)
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The United States grew by only 0.1%, with an additional 392,665 added to the U.S. population from July 2020 to July 2021, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

A proposed Chicago Ward Map from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus.

If 41 alderpeople do not agree on a map, the final decision could be made by voters for the first time in 30 years via a referendum.

A proposed Chicago Ward Map from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus.

The leaders of the Chicago City Council’s Black and Latino caucuses sparred Thursday as a compromise over the boundaries of the ward map that will shape Chicago politics for the next decade remained elusive.