Major Issues: Making the 2010 Census Count
Making the 2010 Census Count
Demographic data are crucial to understanding our world. As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, put it, “There is simply nothing so important to a people and its government as how many of them there are, whether the number is growing or declining, how they are distributed between ages, sexes and different social classes and racial and ethnic groups and which way these numbers are moving.” A census is the most common and direct method of collecting demographic data. A census is usually conducted by a national government and attempts to enumerate every person in a country.
The U.S. Constitution requires a decennial census. The first official count of the U.S. population was conducted in 1790 by federal marshals on horseback. It took 18 months to question and record the answers of the 3.9 million U.S. inhabitants. The layout and process of the census has changed dramatically over the past two centuries. In 1790 six questions were asked, while in 1840 there were over seventy questions. The census of 1890 was the first to be tabulated by machine. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the census department began measuring unemployment and income. The first non-defense computer was developed to tabulate the 1950 census. Mail-in forms took precedence over door-to-door enumerators in 1970. The 2000 Census used 860,000 temporary workers and $6 billion to conduct its effort, which consisted of questionnaires by mail and select follow-up visits. It found the U.S. population to be 281,421,906, as of April 1, 2000.
The decennial census, however, is not the only means of collecting demographic data about the U.S. Other important demographic surveys include the American Community Survey, which replaces the “long” census form that was last used in the 2000 Census. The Census Bureau also conducts an Economic Census every five years that gives businesses and policymakers an in-depth look at the U.S. economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division of the Department of Labor, publishes numerous surveys on labor force and employment, including the Current Population Survey, a monthly household survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the BLS.
Because the Population Resource Center is committed to the use of accurate population data and sound, objective analysis of these data in the making of public policy, we support adequate funding at all levels of government for the collection, analysis and dissemination of demographic data.