There ’s an old - school beauty to the United Statescensus . Every 10 years since 1790 , the rural area takes a interior headcount . That first census , involve by theU.S. Constitutionand instituted by President George Washington , counted few than 4 million people . The most recent census , in 2010 , read 308.7 million men , womanhood and children of dazzling diverseness . The process of take away the census has changed — from house - to - house nose count takers to on-line questionnaire — but the mission remains the same , to paint an accurate video of the changing face of America .
The main role of the census is to figure out how many seats each land receives in the U.S.House of Representatives . Since 1911 , there have been 435 seats in the House , and each state is guaranteed at least one [ source : U.S. House of Representatives ] . extra seats are apportioned by population , with the most thickly settled states welcome the most rump . California , the winner in this category , has 53 fanny in the House , while states like Delaware , Alaska and South Dakota only have one [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] .
But the nose count is much more than just divvy up seats . It ’s a once - a - decade chance to track the shifting demographics of America . How many people experience in big cities ? How many children live in each household ? What is the nation ’s racial and ethnical breakdown ? Federal and state political science rely on census data to budget for societal eudaemonia programs . Cities and individual industry habituate demographic figure to plan hospital expansions and living accommodations developments , and assess the need for new schools or young strip plaza .
Every year , Union and land authorities use census data to allocate more than $ 675 billion toward public services and base [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . Because this datum is so of import , all U.S. residents ( regardless of immigration condition ) are technically postulate by law to faithfully and accurately fill out the census form .
So how did the census come into being ?
History of the Census
The conception of a nosecount , or count of residents , is an ancient one date stamp to scriptural times – at least nine censuses are name in the Bible .
Some say the first nose count ever taken in North America was in 1576 , 200 geezerhood before America gained its independence from the British [ source : Merry ] . Spanish King Philip II , who want information on some of his colonies and what taxes they paid , sent American Indians through what is now Mexico with a inclination of 100 questions . The Indians spoke no Spanish , so they recorded the answers in hieroglyphic ( pictures ) and made maps the same means .
Others say the first North American census was taken in Canada ( in what was then New France ) by Jean Talon on behalf of the king of France . Talon went door to door during the wintertime of 1665 - 66 and counted 3,215 the great unwashed of European descent [ source : Statistics Canada ] .
Since 1790 , U.S. national nose count information has been taken every 10 years ( in old age end in zero ) because it is mandated by the U.S. Constitution and necessary to determine each area ’s representation in the House of Representatives . In 1790 , George Washington signed the human action into jurisprudence [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . While the Constitution describe the census but as an " tally of indweller , " the census has evolved into a more comprehensive — and useful — cognitive process for understanding the habits of people populate in the United States .
According to Judy Hanna Green ’s guide " Finding Treasure in the U.S. Federal Census , " the primary goal of the original 1790 census was to provide information on men eligible for the military . On the heel of the Revolutionary War , the fresh American citizens were especially witting of the grandness of a inviolable military . by and by , during theWar of 1812 , much of the 1790 census was destroy by fire .
In the first home census , 650 U.S. United States Marshals Service went house to house unannounced on hogback all over the nation to enumerate people , write with quill feather pen on any garbage of paper they could come up . The cost of that first census project was $ 45,000 [ source : Washington Post ] . equate that with the 2020 nose count , which is projected to cost $ 15.6 billion or close to $ 100 per U.S. household [ informant : GAO ] .
Technology and the Census
nosecount takingbecame more streamlined in 1880 when prepare worker were employed for the first fourth dimension . Technology surveil in 1890 . The Census Bureau grow a raw electrical machine that could add up reception to questions after census workers punched holes in the right places for each resolution . card were then feed into a motorcar that totaled the result [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . It was bulky but a slap-up advance at that time — anything that pelt along up the outgrowth was a help since some of the event have to be ready nine months after Census Day ( more about that later ) .
Thefirst modern information processing system , calledENIAC , was completed in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania . This reckoner , which was really many machine go together , took up a whole elbow room . The system was quick in fourth dimension for use in parts of the 1950 nose count , and the Census Bureau ordered its own figurer , calledUNIVAC.This was the first successfully used civilian estimator . Data was input usingmagnetic tapeas well as via puncher card . That engineering has advanced over the year and now mellow - speedsupercomputersassist with the census [ reference : U.S. Census Bureau ] .
The major technological leap for the 2010 nosecount was the use of hand-held GPS gimmick to update the Census Bureau ’s victor reference list of the country ’s 145 million residences . The accuracy of GPS coordinates allow for the bureau to correctly assign each nursing home , apartment or laggard to its appropriate Congressional district . In the past , armed only with paper function , census doer unexpectedly assigned an norm of 5 percent of American residences — peculiarly rural homes — to the wrong district . With the rise to GPS devices , the agency projected a 0.5 percent error rate [ source : Luhby ] .
The biggest technical upgrade for 2020 is that it will be the very first nose count that can be complete online . Most U.S. households get a mailed invitation in March 2020 to go online and make out the census . Only house that fail to complete the census by former April will receive a paper questionnaire [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . The hope is that the on-line census will meliorate response rates and lour the cost of sending census workers to observe up .
Another monetary value - cutting technology debuting in 2020 is the habit of satellite imagination to locate new homes and identify those that no longer live . In the past times , census workers had to physically canvas all urban rural locations to verify addresses . Now many of the farthest - flung locations can be checked remotely by liken old and new artificial satellite images . The move to orbiter verification is expected to reduce the canvassing hands from 150,000 worker in 2010 to only 60,000 in 2020 [ germ : CBS News ] .
Most of the U.S. nosecount was taken room access - to - dooruntil 1960 , when nose count officials recognized the inefficiency of this method in dealing with such a fast - develop , peregrine universe . That ’s when they decided to use the ring armor to distribute shape . In the 2010 nose count , 74 per centum of household returned their nose count forms by mail , and the remaining households were counted by an army of nose count worker [ root : U.S. Census Bureau ] .
Why Is the Census Important?
enter in the nose count is in everyone ’s good interest , because the information on the forms is used by decision - maker to determine which communities , school , hospitals and roads need Union funding .
Here are just a few examples of important use for census numbers :
If you need closer - to - rest home reasons for completing your census shape , theCensus Bureausuggests that you believe the pursuit :
Privacy and Security of Census Data
By law , the Census Bureau can not share nosecount answers with other governance agencies , let in welfare agency , immigration , the law or FBI , theInternal Revenue Service , courts or the military machine . Under the provisions ofTitle 13 of the U.S. Code , nosecount prole who weaken this law look up to five eld in prison house or $ 250,000 in fine or both [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . Thelawworks — millions of questionnaires are processed without any breach of trust .
The police force requires each peck of nosecount form to rest private for 72 days [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . This is to protect personally identifiable selective information from going public . The rationale is that piffling negative impact could happen after 72 twelvemonth , since most of the citizenry listed would be fit or were vernal children when it was collected . The mental process of microfilming and printing the census also read a long sentence to reach by the unmingled loudness of documents . ( This process usually takes another two years or so to dispatch and make ready for the public , concord to bureau officials . )
In 2012 , the federal agency released data point from the 1940 census andposted it onlinethrough the National Archives . The arrant 1950 census record book will be released in April 2022 [ author : U.S. Census Bureau ] .
How Does the Census Process Actually Work?
Collecting and reporting census information is a multiyear process . The 2020 nose count actually began back in March 2018 , when the bureau officially submitted its 2020 census questions to the United States Congress [ sourceU.S. Census Bureau ] . The novel batch of eight questions included one about citizenship , which has n’t been asked in any manikin since 1950 . That citizenship question was challenged and the Supreme Court has ruled against it ( see sidebar ) , though President Trump threaten to delay the Census because of this [ seed : CNN ] .
Census worker were also hired throughout 2018 and 2019 to get down the work of canvas neighborhoods — both online using artificial satellite images and in soul — to verify addresses . During the summertime of 2019 , United States Department of State governance will also be tasked with bring home the bacon the Census Bureau with the locations of all known " transitory " housing localization , such as RV park , campgrounds , carnivals , and recollective - condition halt hotels and motel .
Data collection for the 2020 nose count began in earnest on Jan. 21 , 2020 , when census workers traveled by bush plane and snowmobile to reach Toksook Bay , Alaska , estimated universe 661 [ source : U.S. Census Bureau , Wang ] . Since 1990 , rural Alaskan settlement have been the first to be counted since this needs to happen before the spring melt makes travel impassable [ source : Miller ] .
The rest of the country receive their first census invitation in mid - to - recent March 2020 ( March 12 - 20 ) . For 95 percent of households , the first invitation will number in the mail , but it wo n’t include a paper census questionnaire . alternatively , home are directed to a vane address to complete the census online . The legal transfer is distribute so as to space out the number of recipients going online to fill out the nosecount form . For the 2020 nosecount , paper questionnaire will only be redeem to household that do n’t receive chain armour at a strong-arm placement ( people who get their mail in a P.O. box , for deterrent example , or people affected by a raw disaster ) [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . Those report questionnaires will be delivered now by census worker .
Completed census forms will formally be due on April 1 , 2020 — Census Day . ordinarily , from May through July , century of thousands of census workers comb the streets to collect data from households that betray to respond by mail . However , due to the coronavirus pandemic , theseoperations will be delayed . In 2010 , only 68 percent of forms were received by April 16 [ author : Roberts ] . In the end , 74 pct responded by mail .
The Census Bureau will also take extra operations to count masses with no specify address or who live in dormitories , nursing abode , prisons , shelters , trailer parks , transient trapping and other group or nonstandard housing .
From July through December , the Census Bureau will crunch numbers to accurately memorialize and analyze the new population data . By Dec. 31 , 2020 , the bureau is call for by law to report the unexampled Congressional assignation numbers to the President of the United States . The chest will have until April 1 , 2021 , to provide each state with detailed redistricting datum [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . Both of these particular date could be pushed back reckon on the severity of the hold due to the coronavirus pandemic .
Counting Homeless and Transient People
According to the Census Bureau , it enlist the aid of local experts in finding place where people without housing receive services , such asemergency and transitional shelters , soup kitchen , on a regular basis scheduled fluid solid food vans and targeted outdoor locating . Census actor then see these location in person to carry on the census .
Partnerships with biotic community - based organizations are all important to including migrator and seasonal farm workers in the census . The Census Bureau seeks the advice of local expert to find field where migrant and seasonal doer live and work , including unregistered labor camps , vehicles parked near work internet site and life areas along unnamed roads .
nose count takers also interview people stay atcampgrounds , fair and funfair and marinas . Every someone interview has the chance to report his or her permanent address .
And the chest of drawers works with the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard to identify living quarter on military installations and ships . All oceangoing , coastal and Great Lake ship take part in what is cognise as the Census Maritime Enumeration . In addition , the Census Bureau ’s design accounts for military personnel and federal civilian government employees , as well as their dependent who are stationed overseas .
When necessary , nosecount taker serve residents who involve aid in fill out the forms . In some facilities , such as jails , the staff distributes nose count questionnaires . These staff prole , like all census workers , are sworn to protect the confidentiality of the individual .
What’s on the 2020 Census Form?
There used to be twocensusquestionnaires , known as the " short - class " and the " recollective - form " questionnaire . From 1970 through 2000 , most households welcome the shorter rendering , which primarily necessitate questions about the number of people living in the household and their characteristics ( age , sex , backwash , etc . ) . A smaller random sampling have the longer version , which included detailed demographic and economical information ( 52 total doubtfulness ) . go with the 2010 census , everyone find just the shorter conformation , which has 10 to 12 questions . The long - form questionnaire was interchange with the American Community Survey , a detailed questionnaire randomly sent to 3.5 million American households every year ( not just once a decade ) that allow for up - to - the - minute demographic data in between census years .
So what are the exact questions on the 2020 nose count ? Here are the questions :
Does this person sometimes live or stay somewhere else?If the answer is " yes , " the respondent can ensure a loge for college , prison house , military service , or with another relative , among other options .
" How is this person link to Person 1?“For the first fourth dimension in 2020 , there is an option to registersame - sex relationships . rather of choosing simply " married man or married woman , " which was how the 2010 nose count cast it , respondents to the 2020 census can choose either " Opposite - sex husband / married woman / spouse " or " Same - gender husband / married woman / mate " in addition to " Opposite - sexual urge unmarried partner " and " Same - sex single partner . "
