Federal government inflated census figures for same-sex married couples

September 27, 2011

The 2010 census overestimated the number of households with same-sex married couples by more than 160%, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday.

Officials said the numbers released this summer were incorrect because of an “inconsistency in responses … that artificially inflated the number of same-sex couples,” according to a news release.

The inconsistency apparently occurred because residents may have checked the wrong box when responding to questions about their relationship to the householder and the sex of each person living there. the rest

The 2010 census first reported that there were 349,377 same-sex married-couple households and 552,620 same-sex unmarried-partner households across the country.

On Tuesday officials said they had revised the count to 131,729 same-sex married-couple and 514,735 same-sex unmarried-partner households.