Decennial census

“ 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. ”

“ Geographic stability The Census Bureau prefers that the MCDs in a State remain relatively stable from one decennial census to another, with only minor changes in their boundaries and areas. If there are massive or widespread changes, the geographic pattern of subcounty governmental units or administrative subdivisions is disrupted and the historical comparability of the data is impaired. When that happens, the Census Bureau may encourage the appropriate State officials to consider replacing the MCDs with CCDs. ”

“ In five instances at the time of the 1990 census, a county and city consolidated their governments, and yet other incorporated places continued to function within the county; the Census Bureau treats these entities as both counties and consolidated cities (see Chapter 9, “Places”) . The small-area components of decennial census geography, census tracts/block numbering areas and their subdivisions (block groups and census blocks, and enumeration districts prior to the 1990 census) , always observe county boundaries. ”

“ The growth of our population has now brought us, in the destined career of our national history, to a point at which it well behooves us to expand our vision over the vast prospective.
The successive decennial returns of the census since the adoption of the Constitution have revealed a law of steady, progressive development, which may be stated in general terms as a duplication every quarter century. ”

“ By contrast, the PUMS files use a sample of raw data for areas of 100,000 or greater population; PUMS areas typically comprise large cities, groupings of counties, or remainders of counties. From these samples, the data users can select and manipulate specific responses to create customized decennial census tabulations in much the same way as if they had collected the information in their own census or sample survey. Strictly speaking, the PUMS microdata areas are not official geographic units, as the Census Bureau provides neither totals nor summary information for them. ”

“ On the other hand, it is appropriate for the boundaries of geographic areas such as UAs and CDPs to change with each decennial census. Just as cities change their boundaries as they expand to provide services to, and gain jurisdiction over, additional territory, the people who live there, and the businesses that operate there, UAs and CDPs are delineated to reflect the settlement pattern at a specific moment in time. ”

“ Intercensal MA Changes In the period between decennial censuses, the OMB may define new MSAs and make certain other types of changes specified in the MA standards. Intercensal MA changes result from population counts or estimates from the Census Bureau. During the 1990s, research is under way to produce a new approach for defining areas using data from the 2000 census.
Qualification and Designation of New MSAs An area can qualify for intercensal designation as an MSA in three ways: (1) a city reaches the 50,000 population threshold according to a Census Bureau special census count or estimate ”

“ Census Designated Places Census designated places (CDPs) are communities that lack separate governments but otherwise resemble incorporated places. They are settled population centers with a definite residential core, a relatively high population density, and a degree of local identity. Often a CDP includes commercial, industrial, or other urban types of land use. Before each decennial census, CDPs are delineated by State and local agencies, and by tribal officials according to Census Bureau criteria. The resulting CDP delineations are then reviewed and approved by the Census Bureau. ”

“ Census blocks, the smallest geographic area for which the Bureau of the Census collects and tabulates decennial census data, are formed by streets, roads, railroads, streams and other bodies of water, other visible physical and cultural features, and the legal boundaries shown on Census Bureau maps. Census data for these areas serve as a valuable source for small-area geographic studies. The Census Bureau has responded to public demand for more geographic coverage of census block data by expanding the Census Block Statistics Program each decade since block data first were published in 1940. ”

“ Census Tracts/BNAs and Governmental Unit Boundaries The Census Bureau discourages the use of governmental unit boundaries as census tract/BNA boundaries because of the need to freeze the census tract/BNA boundaries at the time of census block numbering, which occurs several years before a decennial census. ”

“ State officials were invited to delineate BGs in the remaining counties. The Census Bureau delineated BGs for counties in which local and State officials chose not to participate in the BG program. The total number of BGs delineated for the 1990 decennial census was 229,466.
History of Small Areas in U.S. Censuses Throughout most of the 1800s, the smallest data unit for which the Census Bureau collected information was the area assigned to an individual enumerator, and the smallest area for which it reported data corresponded to geographic entities such as wards, communities, and townships. ”

“ This shows an average decennial increase of 34.60 per cent in population through the seventy years from our first to our last census yet taken. It is seen that the ratio of increase at no one of these seven periods is either 2 per cent below or 2 per cent above the average, thus showing how inflexible, and consequently how reliable, the law of increase in our case is. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But according to the eleventh census the decennial rate of growth of population fell suddenly from over 30%, which the figures had shown between 1870 and 1880, and in every preceding decade of the century, except that of the Civil War, to less than 25%, in spite of an immigration nearly double that of any preceding decade. ”

“ The Census Bureau refers to these entities collectively as Puerto Rico and the Outlying Areas. All these entities except Palau also are included in the Census of Agriculture, and all except American Samoa and Palau are included in the economic censuses. Table 7-1 shows the first year each entity participated in the decennial, agriculture, and economic censuses. In the Virgin Islands and the Pacific Outlying Areas, the Census Bureau takes the various censuses as joint projects with the local governments, which actually conduct the censuses. In Puerto Rico, the Census Bureau conducts the census. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At that time we shall probably have a hundred million people to share the burden, instead of thirty-one millions, as now. And not only so, but the increase of our population may be expected to continue, for a long time after that period, as rapidly as before; because our territory will not have become full.
"I do not state this inconsiderately. At the same ratio of increase which we have maintained, on an average, from our first National census in 1790, until that of 1860, we should, in 1900, have a population of 103,208,415. ”

“ I agree that the state legislatures should be required to make 'a good-faith effort to achieve' a result that allocates the population or the residents [1] of the State in roughly equal numbers to each district, based upon some orderly and objective method. [2] In my view, the State could properly arrive at figures for current population by taking the latest census returns and making modifications to allow for population movements since the last census (which the Court seems to find acceptable) . ”

“ The very conditions of life among our people have undergone great changes. The interior movements of population have become more rapid and extensive, and half a million of square miles are now settled more or less densely, which in 1850 were unsurveyed, or even unexplored.
As the census of a great nation is a very practical work, into which theory and preconceived notions should enter as little as possible, it would seem that such great changes of condition, as well as the advances made meanwhile in the science of legislation and in the art of government, justify and require a new census law. ”

“ Of course, dear friends, I am not qualified to speak fully of the uses of a national census—a statesman only could do this, yet it is self-evident that everything which tends to the amelioration of public evils and the furtherance of the public good, must be subserved by the statistics so gained. Not only distinctive legislation, but also all our schemes for the extension of education and the promotion of the work of Christ’s Church can only find arguments, exactitude, and adaptation from the knowledge to be gained by a national census. ”

“ The aggregate population, according to an official estimate made in 1905, is 500,136, but a complete and satisfactory census cannot be taken throughout the country, since the ignorant masses of the people, and especially the Indians, avoid a census as in some way connected with military conscription or taxation. ”

“ Hamilton explained. "I think it will be even more fun than the manufactures end, and I heard that they're going to put on a few population enumerators from those who have been on the manufactures work, admitting them without an exam. I think the population census gathering will be fine." ”

“ Those who suggest that filling out your census form isn't essential are plainly wrong. An inaccurate census distorts our understanding of a community's needs, denies people their fair share of resources, and diminishes the quality of life not only for them but for all of us. If we believe everybody in our American community counts, we simply must make sure everyone is counted. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As both of these groups of questions were intended to be the basis for supplementary inquiries, I will speak of them further on. Such is the explanation of the complicated and unwieldy population schedule which the Census Office sent out and expected to have answered for every individual in the United States, man, woman, and child, white or black, native or foreign-born, intelligent or ignorant. The final reports will doubtless show failure in many directions. ”

“ The births are to be estimated by adding to the number of persons less than one year of age at the time of the enumeration those who were born and died during the census year. Of course vital statistics obtained by such methods must be imperfect and crude; but this whole matter is forced on the census by the fact that we have no uniform registration of births, deaths, and marriages in the United States, and owing to our federal form of government are not likely to have. It is the best we can do. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the last annual report of the department it was recommended that new legislation be had in provision for the approaching tenth census of the United States. The considerations which, in the interest alike of economy and of sound statistics, seemed to require that the census should not continue to be taken under the act of May 23, 1850, were set forth at length in the papers accompanying the report. By act of March 3, 1879, Congress instituted a new system of enumeration, and made provision for the tenth and subsequent censuses upon principles widely different from those of the act of 1850. ”