Many databases from the U.S. Census Bureau appeared to be unavailable to the public on Thursday, with users being told access was “forbidden” when attempting to download common datasets.
Several data experts told CNBC that they were receiving the same error message on files that are routinely available.
“My staff tried numerous economic releases, and we could not access them through Census.gov,” said Maurine Haver, founder of Haver Analytics. The company is a leading global data provider, including to CNBC.
Data experts were able to download some files through various workarounds.
A few of the datasets that were unavailable to CNBC late Thursday include information on voter demographics, population changes by state and small businesses.
Economists were concerned that there could be wider implications.
“When was the last time that Census just stopped publishing data? That just doesn’t happen,” said Michael Horrigan, president of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Two data experts at the institute were also unable to download data from Census.gov.
“It suggests that there may be internal pressures not to publish data that we rely on, and we need to figure out if that’s true,” Horrigan said.
Some databases were still accessible to the public. It is unclear if the restricted data was due to a technical issue or as part of the changes around information and communication under President Donald Trump.
Erica Groshen, former commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Obama administration, said the Census data is vital to decision-making across government and business.
“Monetary policy, fiscal policy and investment decisions will all be worse when data quality declines, or reports are delayed or absent,” Groshen told CNBC.
The Census Bureau did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment Thursday afternoon.
The Census Bureau website was one of several government webpages that briefly went dark last Friday following the White House order to remove certain language around diversity, equity and inclusion.
