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What is the Census?
The United States Census Bureau has been an American institution for over one hundred years to date. When the US Constitution was signed, a clause was put in requiring a census of the population every ten years, to determine the numbers of representatives per state. Initially carried out by Federal agents, the census eventually became the responsibility of the Census Bureau, formed in 1902. As the years progressed, the census went from tallying citizens to economic and social survey. History of the Census 
"Article
I, Section 2, of the United States Constitution required in 1787 that
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several
States which may be included within this Union, according to their
respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number
of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and
excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other Persons." - http://www.census.gov/mso/www/centennial/bkgrnd.htm
The first census: "These first enumerators faced great difficulties. Hostile Indians were a frequent danger. Travel was a severe physical test with few roads and fewer bridges. The western boundary of the country was the Mississippi River, beyond lay a vast territory, unexplored and claimed by Spain. Most of the area between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi was unsettled and scarcely explored. On the south was the Spanish colony of Florida, and rife boundary controversy; the northern boundary between the United States and Canada was also in dispute. Mail service was irregular, expensive and uncertain. Under these adverse conditions, enumerator-assistant marshals required 18 months to enumerate the Country's population of 3,929,214." - http://www.census.gov/mso/www/centennial/first.htm The Census started out as pure enumeration of citizens. Gradually, requests started to be made for information on other areas of social and economic life. The first inquiries on manufacturing were made in 1810. Agriculture, mining, governments, religious bodies (discontinued after 1936), business, housing, and transportation were added to the decennial census. The United States conducted censuses on other areas under United States control as well. Some examples include the Philippines, Guam, the Panama Canal zone, Cuba, and the Pacific Islands. Occasionally, as in 1980, there were additional questionnaires distributed to American Indians. Over the years, the census grew in size and scope, all the while changing definitions and data collection methods. The mail in census forms began to be distributed in 1960 when census officials recognized the inefficiency of this method in dealing with such a fast-growing, increasingly diverse and mobile population. Prior to 1960, they did all surveying door to door. Visions for the future... The next step the Bureau of the Census envisions is paperless data collection, equipping their door to door surveyors with computers for immediate data entry and much faster tabulation. Our Collection The Government Documents Library houses decennial census volumes from 1790 to 1990 (2000 volumes coming soon!). Our library contains 1890 reels of Illinois census microdata, census CDs, and other publications. We also provide bibliographic assistance with the online interface to the decennial census: American Factfinder and other census databases. Resources US Census Centennial Celebration page: a website stuffed with historical timelines, pictures, narratives, and statistics. http://www.census.gov/mso/www/centennial/ How the census works: gives information on general procedures, as well as giving a privacy and subject matter FAQ. http://www.census.gov/mso/www/centennial/works.htm Census artifacts: a brief look at statistics and country information from select time periods. http://www.census.gov/mso/www/centennial/artifacts.htm |
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