The former chief Statistician for the American Samoa Government has disputed the preliminary 2010 census for American Samoa.
Meleisea Vaito'elau Filiga, who is now the Deputy Chief Election Officer, believes there was an undercount of the territory's population by as much as 14,000.
The 2010 census showed a 3.1 percent drop in the population to 55,519.
Meleisea, who supervised the 2000 and previous two census for American Samoa, has compiled a report of migration figures, births and deaths, school enrollment and other official statistics to illustrate his position that the drop in population is due to thousands of people not being counted during the 2010 census.
Meleisea calculates the natural growth in population, that is births minus deaths, at 1,000 or more per year.
He said this accounts for 13,890 people added to the population between 2000 and 2010.
When this number is added to the population of American Samoa in 2000, the 2010 census count should be just under 70,000.
