US Census Bureau to miss deadline for demographic numbers to determine seat division in Congress

The US Census Bureau will miss a year-end deadline to produce the population count used to divide seats in Congress between the states, it said on Wednesday.

"We continue to process the data collected and plan to deliver a complete and accurate state population count for apportionment in early 2021, as close to the statutory deadline as possible", the Census Bureau said in a statement.

NPR reported earlier that the bureau was still trying to fix irregularities uncovered in this year's census records and that it was going to miss the Thursday deadline for numbers that determine representation in Congress and the Electoral College for the next decade.

The NPR report, which cited an unidentified employee from the bureau, said that the deadline was being missed due to delays caused by the pandemic and last-minute changes by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Read | Jeopardising Donald Trump's plan, Census Bureau to miss deadline

Trump signed a memorandum in July aimed at preventing migrants who are in the United States illegally from being counted when US congressional voting districts were next redrawn.

US census experts and lawyers had said the action was legally dubious and not easily executed in practice.