United States Bureau of the Census

“ States, Counties, and Statistically Equivalent Entities
States and counties are the major legally defined political and administrative units of the United States. As such, they serve as the primary geographic units for which the Bureau of the Census reports data. The Census Bureau provides statistics for these entities in every decennial census of population and housing, in every census of agriculture and governments, and in all the economic censuses. ”

“ We fully realize the importance to the public of the submission of free and full reports to the Census Bureau, but we cannot rewrite the Census Act. It does not require petitioner to keep a copy of its report nor does it grant copies of the report not in the hands of the Census Bureau an immunity from legal process. Ours is the duty to avoid a construction that would suppress otherwise competent evidence unless the statute, strictly construed, requires such a result. ”

“ Senate that the form of treaty which was finally ratified differed but
little from the arbitration treaties of 1908.
CHAPTER XVI
THE THIRTEENTH CENSUS, 1910
[1910-1911]
After many years of urging on the part of statisticians and public men,
Congress, in 1902, passed a bill which was signed by the President
providing for a permanent census bureau connected with the Department of
Commerce and Labor. This bureau, as shown in the taking of the
thirteenth census, serves to promote both efficiency and economy in the
collection of statistics associated with the census work. ”

“ The Census Bureau has a primary obligation to protect the confidentiality of individual responses to the Census. As part of this confidentiality commitment, the Census Bureau does not currently release individual census questionnaires (or any other information that could identify an individual) until 72 years after a Decennial Census was taken. ”

“ Here both the District Court and the Court of Appeals have held these file copies not restricted, and with this conclusion we agree.
Petitioner's claim is based on §§ 8 and 9 (a) of the Census Act, 13 U.S.C. §§ 8-9 (a) , 13 U.S.C.A. §§ 8, 9 (a) , and assurances of confidentiality by the Government. It can be noted immediately that § 8 does not in any way support petitioner's position. This section grants the Secretary of Commerce the discretion to furnish to named authorities data taken from information furnished the Census Bureau on censuses of population, agriculture and housing. ”

“ It should be added that the growing importance of political science, as well as its recent origin, is exhibited in the fact that nearly every modern nation has established within the last half century a bureau of general statistics for the uses of statesmanship and science. In the thirty states of Europe they are now assiduously cultivating the science. Not one of their central bureaus was fully organized before the year 1800.
“The chief instrument of American statistics is the census, which should accomplish a two-fold object. ”

“ Background The decennial population censuses always have sought to identify county subdivisions as a primary geographic entity. The first census (1790) reported population counts for MCDs (towns, townships, and other units of local government) , and this practice continued throughout subsequent censuses. For States in which local governmental units did not exist below the county level, various administrative units or other area designations were used, such as companies, districts, hundreds, remainder of county, and eastern (or western) portion of county. ”

“ The popular opinion of a census, at least in the United States, depends largely upon the degree to which its figures for the population of the country, of states, and especially of cities, meet or fail to meet the expectations of the interested public. ”

“ Persons living in households............................. 4,971,676
Persons per household.................................... 2.54
GROUP QUARTERS
Persons living in group quarters......................... 145,397
Institutionalized persons............................. 80,854
Other persons in group quarters....................... 64,543
RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN
White.................................................... 4,486,228
Black.................................................... 548,208
Percent of total population........................... ”

“ The decennial census can embrace this variety of entities because the very large number of people and housing units involved are distributed in sizable numbers throughout the Nation and its territories. The information collected in the other censuses and sample surveys conducted by the Census Bureau, such as statistics about manufacturing establishments, farms, or people unemployed, usually are more appropriate for presentation only when summarized into larger geographic entities, counties, metropolitan areas, or States. ”

“ A type of governmental unit that is the primary legal subdivision of a county in 28 States, created to govern or administer an area rather than a specific population. The several types of MCDs are identified by a variety of terms, such as town, township, and district, and include both functioning and nonfunctioning governmental units. Many MCDs represent local, general-purpose governmental units, which makes them required areas for presentation of decennial census data. ”

“ This extended scope of the census has received the implied approval of the Supreme Court; [136] it is one of the methods whereby the national legislature exercises its inherent power to obtain the information necessary for intelligent legislative action. Although taking an enlarged view of its power in making the enumeration of persons called for by this section, Congress has not always complied with its positive mandate to reapportion representatives among the States after the census is taken. ”

“ The surveys and discussions resulted in focusing attention on three major recommendations: (1) the early release of data, (2) the geographic compatibility of census tabulation units with voting districts, and (3) the need for block-by-block population counts for incorporated places. For many States, the final census data often arrived too late to be of any use to them. In other States, the timing of data publication may have been acceptable, but the size and boundaries of some of the tabulation units, specifically EDs, were not. ”

“ By design, statistical areas respect State lines, with two exceptions: both metropolitan areas (defined by the Office of Management and Budget) and urbanized areas may cross State boundaries.
Combinations of States and Counties Two types of statistical entities, the census region and the census division, encompass combinations of adjacent States. Both regions and divisions are convenient geographic units for summarizing census and sample survey data. For instance, the six New England States compose a single division ”

“ Every 10 years, as mandated by our Constitution, all persons living in the United States are called upon to participate in the census. As the foremost method of gathering information about our Nation, the census plays a crucial role in helping us to maintain our democratic form of government. ”

“ The ninth article gave Congress the authority ‘to agree upon the 221numbers of land forces, and to make requisitions from each of its quota in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State.’ These articles, unquestionably contemplated a national census, to include a valuation of land and an enumeration of population, but they led to no substantial results. When the blanks in the revenue report of 1783 were filled, the committee reported that they had been compelled to estimate the population of all the States except New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maryland. ”

“ The ability of public officials to achieve uniformity in the sizes of their legislative districts stems in part from the Census Bureau’s ability to provide them with population counts for small geographic areas. ”

“ A census block is always unique to, and can never cross the boundaries of, either a census tract or a BNA. All standard geographic tabulation entities are made up of whole tabulation blocks.
States and Counties State and county boundaries form the framework within which the Census Bureau numbers census tracts and BNAs; thus, census blocks never cross these boundaries. In the rare instances where a State or county boundary change is reported after census tract/BNA numbers are entered, the Census Bureau assigns suffixes to the census block numbers for data tabulation. ”

“ But the census has long outgrown that clause, and it would be impossible to justify even the questions on the population schedule as necessary to an enumeration of the people. With the employment of special agents the necessity for a uniform date has ceased, and it is the opinion of such men as General Walker and Commissioner Wright that it would be better to make these special inquiries at some other time, when the Census Office is less overwhelmed with work. ”

“ Currently, the Census Bureau makes the full range of census data available for all governmental units and for census tracts/BNAs, thereby negating the need for census tract/BNA boundaries to follow governmental unit boundaries.
Demographic requirements When first delineating census tracts, the Census Bureau requests that the average population of all census tracts in a county (or statistically equivalent entity) be about 4,000 people (approximately 1,500 housing units) , with individual census tracts ranging from 2,500 to 8,000 inhabitants (1,000 to 3,000 housing units) . ”

“ The safety for the census lies in the country enumerator who has a chance for a month's employment, and the fact that he is paid according to the amount of work he does. For each living inhabitant he receives two cents, for each death reported two cents, for each surviving soldier five cents, for each defective person or criminal five cents, for each farm fifteen cents, and for each manufacturing establishment twenty cents. In sparsely settled districts higher rates are allowed for living inhabitants, farms, and manufacturing establishments ”

“ In addition, other programs offered by the Census Bureau, such as the 1980 Neighborhood Statistics Program and the 1980 Election Precinct Program, offered data for small areas in a variety of formats, thereby filling the need for data that would have been provided at the ward level.
The need to provide data for political representation, as prescribed by the Constitution, remains the primary purpose for conducting the decennial census of population. ”

“ All this, however, to the mind of the impartial observer, rather militates against the credibility of American statistics than in their favour. The amount of money spent seems needlessly extravagant, while it is even more extravagant to hope that all this variety of information can be obtained with any degree of accuracy and trustworthiness. To many, therefore, the United States census is a 'monument,' but one provoking a sense of weariness and scepticism. ”