The United States — like any sovereign nation — has a right to know who its citizens are. And who, within its borders, is not a citizen.

The Trump administration has announced it will include a citizenship status question on the national census that is conducted every 10 years, beginning in 2020.

Not a moment too soon. With as many as 11 million illegal immigrants living in America today, the government also has a right to know — as do taxpayers — how many people are illegally residing here.

First, is the matter of national security. Then there’s the matter of preserving the integrity of our democracy — a system predicated on legitimate elections. A task that’s difficult to maintain if we don’t know who’s living in our country — and who is voting.

Voting districts are carved out based on population. Without the citizenship status information, census data could be inflating how many people legitimately live in a voting district, potentially rewarding the states that cater to illegal immigrants or offer them sanctuary with more seats in Congress.

Adding the sensible citizenship question could also help reduce voter fraud. If there are 500,000 U.S. citizens in a district, and 550,000 vote, we’ll know there is a problem.

“The Democrats’ heads are exploding over this because they are terrified that it might be revealed that some of their districts are skewed toward non-citizens, and drawn in a way that is disadvantageous to citizens voting in other districts,” said Jessica Vaughn, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. “There are many good reasons to collect this information — to understand the make-up of our population, to equalize federal and state funding, to make sure that appropriate services are available in the right places and to ensure fair apportionment of federal and state election districts, so that our votes are all equally powerful.”

Citizenship is a key demographic metric. Why would anyone not want accurate population data?

Vaughn explained, “Opponents of the citizenship question are pretending this is some new, sinister plot by the Trump administration to suppress minority votes, but in fact the question was asked on the long form up until 2000, and is currently asked on the smaller, more frequent surveys. Experts do not expect that it will depress responses to the census. More people have been resisting answering the census, but it appears that those are more likely to be people who resent government intrusion into their lives, or people trying to hide things from the government, not necessarily illegal immigrants.”

Democrats’ resistance to the citizenship question comes as no surprise as liberals want to remove any distinction between illegal and legal immigrants. They also want the benefit of more congressional districts in blue states giving them greater power in Washington.

Naturally, liberals don’t mind illegal immigrants voting — Democratic, of course — that’s why they balk at sensible Voter ID laws and support open borders.

American citizens are asked for their citizen status when applying for jobs, going through Customs, getting passports, opening bank accounts and many other situations. Why, in the critical constitutionally mandated head count our nation conducts once a decade, should it be any different?

It just doesn’t make any sense.

Adriana Cohen is a Boston Herald Radio host, columnist and syndicated columnist. Follow her on Twitter @AdrianaCohen16.