Census Bureau

The U.S. Census Bureau has a long history in the United States of America. The Census Bureau collects data about the people and economy of the United States every ten years. The first census was taken in 1790 by U.S. marshals who were told to visit every dwelling place and count the individuals living there. Taking about a year to complete the count, census clerks determined the population to be 3.9 million inhabitants.

As the country grew, an increasing need developed for statistics to help the government understand the current situation and to make plans for the future. The content of the census changed accordingly. In 1810 the first inquiry about manufacturing was included; questions about fisheries were added in 1840. In 1850 the census included questions about crime, taxation, churches, and other social issues. In 1870 the Census Bureau used a wooden machine invented by Col. Charles W. Seaton to help keep the columns of figures aligned. By 1880, the census undertaking was so complex that it took almost eight years to tabulate.

American inventor Herman Hollerith (1860–1929) was employed by the U.S. Census Bureau to help tabulate the 1880 census. He left the Census Bureau for a succession of jobs and eventually he devised a punched card tabulating machine to track health statistics. After testing Hollerith's machine against two other inventions, the Census Bureau agreed to rent 56 Hollerith machines to speed up the tabulation of the 1890 census. Clerks used a hand punch to enter data into cards slightly larger than a dollar bill. The cards were then read and sorted by Hollerith's machine and summarized on numbered tabulating dials. The 1890 census took just two and a half years to complete and the Census Bureau saved more than $5 million.

Many researchers believe that the 1890 census was the first time that a large data collection and analysis problem was handled by machines. Because of the agency's need to process large amounts of data in a timely and cost-efficient fashion, the Census Bureau has been in the forefront of the data processing revolution.

The Census Bureau was instrumental in securing funding for John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr., through the National Bureau of Standards, to develop a practical electronic digital computer. In 1951 the Census Bureau installed the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) I, which was developed by Mauchly and Eckert's company, Remington-Rand Corporation. It was the first commercially viable electronic digital computer.

Use of the UNIVAC I computer to tabulate the 1950 census did not yield great improvement over past tabulating methods, due to general inexperience with the computer and the awkwardness of this early computer technology. However, several surveys were tabulated using the UNIVAC I computer after the 1950 census. Improved performance on these surveys indicated to the bureau that increased use of electronic computing technology would continue to enhance survey productivity and expand the Census Bureau's ability to collect new types of data.

With the 1954 Economic Census, use of the electronic computer greatly reduced the bureau's reliance on the time-consuming and manually intensive punched card tabulating machines that had been in place since 1890. The new computer-based data processing system allowed the bureau to calculate sophisticated statistics that were previously impractical to use. The UNIVAC I computer also allowed the bureau to check for inconsistencies in the census data and correct them, thereby increasing accuracy. The electronic computer allowed longer records to be stored, sorted, and tabulated, which greatly increased the amount and types of data that could be analyzed. From this point, the Census Bureau focused much of its research and development efforts on auxiliary computer equipment to improve input and output operations and thus increase productivity.

The Census Bureau has developed a wide range of interactive tools to help people analyze and understand the statistics generated by the bureau. For example, the Data Extraction System (DES) is used to extract data from the current population survey and public use census data. DES is now available via the Internet, as are many other access and analysis tools. The TIGER system is another analysis and application tool; it integrates maps with information about highways, parks, railroads, streets, and population statistics. When a user enters a ZIP code, a map is displayed. The user can request various levels of detail, as desired. The CenStats system, also available to Internet users, makes a variety of applications available, including a street locator, business patterns for each county, surveys of manufacturers, international trade information, and more.

The U.S. Census Bureau is the only comprehensive, statistical source of social and economic data in the United States. The huge volume of data from the census is published and the statistics that are generated filter into almost every aspect of life in the United States. ﾀ Population statistics are used to help determine each state's number of seats in the House of Representatives, funding for school districts, and money for road and bridge repairs. Census numbers are used by the federal government to allocate more than $100 billion each year for education programs, housing and community development, health-care services for the elderly, and other programs and services. Businesses use the statistics to decide where to locate factories, shopping malls, movie theaters, banks, and offices.

Some people are concerned that the individual answers they provide in a census can be seen by others. However, by law, confidentiality in census information is rigorously enforced. Individual answers cannot be shared with anyone, including other government agencies.

Since the first census in 1790, the U.S. Census Bureau has been a source of data about who we are, where we live, and what we need to do to grow and prosper as a country. The bureau has been instrumental in developing new ways to collect, analyze, and distribute this data—first, through the use of mechanized tabulating machines, then through computer technology, and now through the Internet.