WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) met with U.S. Census Bureau director John Thompson and made the case that all North Carolina soldiers and Marines should be counted in the decennial census as residents of the state, regardless of whether or not they are deployed abroad.

Last year, Senator Tillis raised the alarm that the Census Bureau does not count soldiers and Marines who are stationed in North Carolina but deployed overseas as North Carolina residents. For example, the Census Bureau counts North Carolina Marines deployed at sea as residents of the homeport of the ship on which they were serving, even though their home and family are in North Carolina.

Undercounting troops cost North Carolina, the ninth largest state in the nation, a new congressional seat following the 2010 census, as well as future tax dollars that are proportional to population.

“North Carolina is blessed to have Fort Bragg, the largest military installation in the free world, and Camp Lejeune, the largest base in the Marine Corps. Their troops and their families call North Carolina home,” said Senator Tillis. “They live here in North Carolina, they vote here, they pay taxes here, and their children go to school here. By not counting them in the census, we are denying them access to federal and state services based on our population. It’s long past due for this unfair and obsolete practice to be changed.”
 

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