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139-598: The United States census (plural censuses or census) is a census that is legally mandated by the Constitution of the United States . It takes place every ten years. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790 under Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson . There have been 23 federal censuses since that time. The census includes territories of the United States . The United States Census Bureau

278-638: A base-10 positional system. On May 25, 1577, King Philip II of Spain ordered by royal cédula the preparation of a general description of Spain's holdings in the Indies. Instructions and a questionnaire, issued in 1577 by the Office of the Cronista Mayor, were distributed to local officials in the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru to direct the gathering of information. The questionnaire, composed of fifty items,

417-533: A census for tax purposes, which was partially responsible for the development of the Zealot movement and several failed rebellions against Rome ultimately ending in the Jewish Diaspora . The Gospel of Luke makes reference to Quirinius' census in relation to the birth of Jesus ; based on variant readings of this passage, a minority of biblical scholars, including N. T. Wright , speculate that this passage refers to

556-635: A presidential memorandum ordering the exclusion of illegal immigrants from the numbers in the 2020 census that are used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives. The COVID-19 pandemic made the collection of the census results difficult, and the department had extended the deadline to complete collection to October 31 instead of July 31, 2020. On August 3, the department announced its Replan Schedule that would end collection early on September 30, aware this would leave them with incomplete data that they would have to estimate total numbers to complete. This move

695-408: A sampling frame such as an address register. Census counts are necessary to adjust samples to be representative of a population by weighting them as is common in opinion polling . Similarly, stratification requires knowledge of the relative sizes of different population strata, which can be derived from census enumerations. In some countries, the census provides the official counts used to apportion

834-412: A sampling frame to count the population. This is the only way to be sure that everyone has been included, as otherwise those not responding would not be followed up on and individuals could be missed. The fundamental premise of a census is that the population is not known, and a new estimate is to be made by the analysis of primary data. The use of a sampling frame is counterintuitive as it suggests that

973-480: A "permanent" address, which might be a family home for students or long-term migrants. A precise definition of residence is needed, to decide whether visitors to a country should be included in the population count. This is becoming more important as students travel abroad for education for a period of several years. Other groups causing problems with enumeration are newborn babies, refugees, people away on holiday, people moving home around census day, and people without

1112-525: A State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. The phrase "counting

1251-578: A Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons . The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative;… The phrase "all other persons" refers to slaves, a word not used in the Constitution until the Thirteenth Amendment . Following the end of the Civil War , the first of those provisions

1390-686: A census was taken in Virginia , and people were counted in almost all of the British colonies that became the United States . Between 1781 and 1786, the first "actual enumeration" was conducted separately in each state and compiled by John Kean for consideration at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Throughout the years, the country's needs and interests became more complicated. This meant that statistics were needed to help people understand what

1529-477: A clan or tribe, or by a juridical person such as a corporation, cooperative, or government agency. The holding's land may consist of one or more parcels, located in one or more separate areas or one or more territorial or administrative divisions, providing the parcels share the same production means, such as labor, farm buildings, machinery or draught animals. Historical censuses used crude enumeration assuming absolute accuracy. Modern approaches take into account

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1668-450: A coherent snapshot and avoid double counting. The actual census-taking begins before this date and extends for months thereafter. In 2020, the earliest responses were collected starting January 21 in remote parts of Alaska, and March 12 for most Americans. In addition to its primary purpose of reapportioning the House of Representatives, census data are used for a wide variety of applications, including: The census has historically and up to

1807-415: A family home during vacations, or children whose parents have separated who effectively have two family homes. Census enumeration has always been based on finding people where they live, as there is no systematic alternative: any list used to find people is likely to be derived from census activities in the first place. Recent UN guidelines provide recommendations on enumerating such complex households. In

1946-499: A fishing analogy can be found in "Trout, Catfish and Roach..." which won an award from the Royal Statistical Society for excellence in official statistics in 2011. Triple system enumeration has been proposed as an improvement as it would allow evaluation of the statistical dependence of pairs of sources. However, as the matching process is the most difficult aspect of census estimation this has never been implemented for

2085-414: A fixed address. People with second homes, because they are working in another part of the country or have a holiday cottage, are difficult to fix at a particular address; this sometimes causes double counting or houses being mistakenly identified as vacant. Another problem is where people use a different address at different times e.g. students living at their place of education in term time but returning to

2224-500: A large city, it might be appropriate to give the average income for black males aged between 50 and 60. However, doing this for a town that only has two black males in this age group would be a breach of privacy because either of those persons, knowing his own income and the reported average, could determine the other man's income. Typically, census data are processed to obscure such individual information. Some agencies do this by intentionally introducing small statistical errors to prevent

2363-404: A larger system of different surveys. Although population estimates remain an important function of a census, including exactly the geographic distribution of the population or the agricultural population, statistics can be produced about combinations of attributes, e.g., education by age and sex in different regions. Current administrative data systems allow for other approaches to enumeration with

2502-473: A more than 1,600-member House following the same 2010 census. One proposal to alleviate the current constituency disparities and the high average number of constituents in many states' congressional districts is the " Wyoming rule ." Operating similar to New Zealand's method of allocation for proportional representation, it would give the least populous state (which has been Wyoming since 1990 ) one representative and then create districts in other states with

2641-469: A national enumeration. It would also be difficult to identify three different sources that were sufficiently different to make the triple system effort worthwhile. The DSE approach has another weakness in that it assumes there is no person counted twice (over count). In de facto residence definitions this would not be a problem but in de jure definitions individuals risk being recorded on more than one form leading to double counting. A particular problem here

2780-785: A number of controversies and legal challenges under the Trump administration due to President Donald Trump 's policies on illegal immigration, particularly those undocumented in the country. Prior to the publication of the census, the Commerce Department stated its intention to add a question asking responders about their immigration status, which many states and activists stated would cause illegal immigrants to not respond out of fear of prosecution and lead to undercounting, affecting state representation and federal funding. The Supreme Court case Department of Commerce v. New York , decided in June 2019, found

2919-413: A number of representatives will be an unsafe depositary of the public interests; secondly, that they will not possess a proper knowledge of the local circumstances of their numerous constituents; thirdly, that they will be taken from that class of citizens which will sympathize least with the feelings of the mass of the people, and be most likely to aim at a permanent elevation of the few on the depression of

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3058-433: A population and housing census – numbers of people, their distribution, their living conditions and other key data – is critical for development." This is because this type of data is essential for policymakers so that they know where to invest. Many countries have outdated or inaccurate data about their populations and thus have difficulty in addressing the needs of the population. The UNFPA said: "The unique advantage of

3197-460: A realist approach to measurement, acknowledging that under any definition of residence there is a true value of the population but this can never be measured with complete accuracy. An important aspect of the census process is to evaluate the quality of the data. Many countries use a post-enumeration survey to adjust the raw census counts. This works similarly to capture-recapture estimation for animal populations. Among census experts, this method

3336-553: A representative in 2008, and the U.S. Virgin Islands . Puerto Rico also elects a resident commissioner every four years. Since 1789, when the United States Congress first convened under the Constitution, the number of citizens per congressional district has risen from an average of 33,000 in 1790 to over 700,000 as of 2018 . Prior to the 20th century, the number of representatives increased every decade as more states joined

3475-678: A separate registration conducted during the reign of Herod the Great , several years before Quirinius' census. The 15-year indiction cycle established by Diocletian in AD   297 was based on quindecennial censuses and formed the basis for dating in late antiquity and under the Byzantine Empire . In the Middle Ages , the Caliphate began conducting regular censuses soon after its formation, beginning with

3614-533: A single district, although neither state has fewer people than the least populous congressional districts. Among the Bill of Rights amendments to the United States Constitution proposed by Congress in 1789, was one addressing the number of seats in the House . It attempted to set a pattern for growth of the House along with the population, but has not been ratified. After the first enumeration required by

3753-482: A snapshot of life spans and causes of death throughout the country. The first nine censuses (1790–1870) were conducted by U.S. Marshals before the Census Bureau was created. Appointed U.S. Marshals of each judicial district hired assistant marshals to conduct the actual enumeration. The census enumerators were typically from the village or neighborhood and often knew the residents. Before enabling self-identification on

3892-478: A state is assigned a seat, n is incremented by 1, causing its priority value to be reduced and reordered among the states, whereupon another state normally rises to the top of the list. The 2010 census ranking of priority values shows the order in which seats 51–435 were apportioned after the 2010 census, with additional listings for the next five priorities. Minnesota was allocated the final (435th) seat. North Carolina missed its 14th seat by 15,754 residents as

4031-453: Is called dual system enumeration (DSE). A sample of households is visited by interviewers who record the details of the household as of census day. These data are then matched to census records, and the number of people missed can be estimated by considering the number of people who are included in one count but not the other. This allows adjustments to the count for non-response, varying between different demographic groups. An explanation using

4170-787: Is controversial; up to one-third of all U.S. residents do not respond to repeated reminders. In recent censuses, the nonresponse rate has been less than 1% (it was about 0.4% in 2010), but during the 2020 census, as of September 11, many experts believed the nonresponse rate could reach double digits. By October 19, 2020, all states had topped a 99% response rate, with all but one state having a nonresponse rate below 0.1%. The Census Bureau estimates that in 1970 over six percent of African Americans went uncounted, whereas only around two percent of European Americans went uncounted. Democrats often argue that modern sampling techniques should be used so that more accurate and complete data can be inferred. Republicans often argue against such sampling techniques, stating

4309-401: Is important in considering individuals who have multiple or temporary addresses. Every person should be identified uniquely as a resident in one place; but the place where they happen to be on Census Day, their de facto residence , may not be the best place to count them. Where an individual uses services may be more useful, and this is at their usual residence. An individual may be recorded at

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4448-469: Is interested; researchers in particular have an interest in the role of Census Field Officers (CFO) and their assistants. Data can be represented visually or analysed in complex statistical models, to show the difference between certain areas, or to understand the association between different personal characteristics. Census data offer a unique insight into small areas and small demographic groups which sample data would be unable to capture with precision. In

4587-517: Is mandated by Article I , Section 2 of the United States Constitution , which states: " Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States... according to their respective Numbers... . The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States , and within every subsequent Term of ten Years". Section 2 of

4726-690: Is named after the counting of the Israelite population according to the house of the Fathers after the exodus from Egypt. A second census was taken while the Israelites were camped in the " plains of Moab ". King David performed a census that produced disastrous results. His son, King Solomon , had all of the foreigners in Israel counted. One of the world's earliest preserved censuses was held in China in AD   2 during

4865-538: Is not known if there are any residents or how many people there are in each household. Depending on the mode of enumeration, a form is sent to the householder, an enumerator calls, or administrative records for the dwelling are accessed. As a preliminary to the dispatch of forms, census workers will check for any address problems on the ground. While it may seem straightforward to use the postal service file for this purpose, this can be out of date and some dwellings may contain several independent households. A particular problem

5004-466: Is of Latin origin: during the Roman Republic , the census was a list of all adult males fit for military service. The modern census is essential to international comparisons of any type of statistics, and censuses collect data on many attributes of a population, not just the number of individuals. Censuses typically began as the only method of collecting national demographic data and are now part of

5143-953: Is part of the United States Department of Commerce . Title 13 of the United States Code governs how the census is conducted and how its data are handled. Information is confidential as per 13 U.S.C.   § 9 . The census law, coupled with the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 ( Title 18 of the United States Code , Sections 3551, 3559, and 3571), provides for penalties of up to $ 5,000 for not responding or for willfully providing false answers to any question. Decennial U.S. census figures are based on actual counts of persons dwelling in U.S. residential structures. They include citizens, non-citizen legal residents, non-citizen long-term visitors and undocumented immigrants. The Census Bureau bases its decision about whom to count on

5282-453: Is responsible for conducting the census. The most recent national census took place in 2020; the next census is scheduled for 2030. Since 2013, the Census Bureau began discussions on using technology to aid data collection starting with the 2020 census. In 2020, every household received an invitation to complete the census over the Internet, by phone or by paper questionnaire. For years between

5421-423: Is still conducted in a similar way to the post-enumeration survey employed in a traditional census. Other countries that have a population register use this as a basis for all the census statistics needed by users. This is most common among Nordic countries but requires many distinct registers to be combined, including population, housing, employment, and education. These registers are then combined and brought up to

5560-415: Is students who often have a term time and family address. Several countries have used a system known as short form/long form. This is a sampling strategy that randomly chooses a proportion of people to send a more detailed questionnaire to (the long form). Everyone receives the short-form questions. This means more data are collected, but without imposing a burden on the whole population. This also reduces

5699-469: Is that it was chosen in 1952 as slightly higher than the average female life expectancy, 71.6. Another explanation (which disputes the life expectancy number) is that this number is a holdover from 1942, when a disagreement between the Census Bureau and the National Archives was resolved with 1870 as the boundary between confidential and public records. The individual census data most recently released to

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5838-410: Is the method of equal proportions, which minimizes the percentage differences in the number of people per representative among the different states. The resulting apportionment is optimal in the sense that any additional transfer of a seat from one state to another would result in larger percentage differences. In this method, as a first step, each of the 50 states is given its one guaranteed seat in

5977-448: Is the third-largest in the world; legislatures typically grow in proportion to the cube root of the population , rather than linearly, meaning larger countries tend to have larger constituency sizes. The Apportionment Act of 1911 ( Public Law 62-5 ) raised the membership of the U.S. House to 433 and provided for an apportionment. It also provided for additional seats upon the admissions of Arizona and New Mexico as states, increasing

6116-491: Is typically collected about the household structure and the housing. For this reason, international documents refer to censuses of population and housing. Normally the census response is made by a household, indicating details of individuals resident there. An important aspect of census enumerations is determining which individuals can be counted and which cannot be counted. Broadly, three definitions can be used: de facto residence; de jure residence; and permanent residence. This

6255-416: Is what is termed " communal establishments ", a category that includes student residences, religious orders, homes for the elderly, people in prisons, etc. As these are not easily enumerated by a single householder, they are often treated differently and visited by special teams of census workers to ensure they are classified appropriately. Individuals are normally counted within households , and information

6394-506: The 110th Congress , Representative Tom Davis introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would add two seats to the House, one for Utah and one for the District of Columbia . It was passed by the House, but was tripped up by procedural hurdles in the Senate and withdrawn from consideration. An identical bill was reintroduced during the 110th Congress . In February 2009 the Senate adopted

6533-490: The 1940 census reapportionment. Federal law requires the clerk of the United States House of Representatives to notify each state government of the number of seats apportioned to the state no later than January 25 of the year immediately following each decennial census . The size of a state's total congressional delegation (which in addition to representative(s) includes 2 senators for each state) also determines

6672-611: The Fourteenth Amendment amended Article I, Section 2 to include that the "respective Numbers" of the "several States" will be determined by "counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed." The United States Census Bureau (officially the Bureau of the Census, as defined in Title 13 U.S.C. § 11) is responsible for the United States census. The Bureau of the Census

6811-546: The Han dynasty , and is still considered by scholars to be quite accurate. The population was registered as having 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households but on this occasion only taxable families had been taken into account, indicating the income and the number of soldiers who could be mobilized. Another census was held in AD   144. The oldest recorded census in India is thought to have occurred around 330   BC during

6950-428: The m th allocation, n = m -1). Consider the reapportionment following the 2010 U.S. census: beginning with all states initially being allocated one seat, the largest value of A 1 corresponds to the largest state, California, which is allocated seat 51. After being allocated its 2nd seat, its priority value decreases to its A 2 value, which is reordered to a position back in line. The 52nd seat goes to Texas,

7089-668: The nomarch , "whence he gained his living". Under the Ptolemies and the Romans several censuses were conducted in Egypt by government officials. There are several accounts of ancient Greek city states carrying out censuses. Censuses are mentioned several times in the Biblical narrative. God commands a per capita tax to be paid with the census for the upkeep of the Tabernacle . The Book of Numbers

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7228-437: The population size is already known. However, a census is also used to collect attribute data on the individuals in the nation, not only to assess population size. This process of sampling marks the difference between a historical census, which was a house-to-house process or the product of an imperial decree, and the modern statistical project. The sampling frame used by a census is almost always an address register. Thus, it

7367-412: The 19th and 20th centuries collected paper documents which had to be collated by hand, so the statistical information obtained was quite basic. The government that owned the data could publish statistics on the state of the nation. The results were used to measure changes in the population and apportion representation. Population estimates could be compared to those of other countries. By the beginning of

7506-437: The 20th century, censuses were recording households and some indications of their employment. In some countries, census archives are released for public examination after many decades, allowing genealogists to track the ancestry of interested people. Archives provide a substantial historical record which may challenge established views. Information such as job titles and arrangements for the destitute and sick may also shed light on

7645-439: The 2nd largest state, because its A 1 priority value is larger than the A n of any other state. However, the 53rd seat goes back to California because its A 2 priority value is larger than the A n of any other state. The 54th seat goes to New York because its A 1 priority value is larger than the A n of any other state at this point. This process continues until all remaining seats are assigned. Each time

7784-529: The 436th seat to be allocated; ten years earlier it had gained its 13th seat as the 435th seat to be allocated based on the 2000 census. The 2020 census ranking of priority values shows the order in which seats 51–435 were apportioned after the 2020 census, with additional listings for the next ten priorities. For the second time in a row, Minnesota was allocated the final (435th) seat. If either New York had registered 89 more residents or Minnesota had registered 26 fewer residents, New York would have been allocated

7923-453: The 50 states according to the most recent decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution . After each state is assigned one seat in the House, most states are then apportioned a number of additional seats which roughly corresponds to its share of the aggregate population of the 50 states. Every state is constitutionally guaranteed two seats in the Senate and at least one seat in

8062-447: The Census Bureau headcount, the volume of scheduled publications, and the use of Hollerith's electromechanical tabulators) was to reduce the time required to fully process the census from eight years for the 1880 census to six years for the 1890 census. The total population, of 62,947,714, was announced after only six weeks of processing (punched cards were not used for this family, or rough , count). The public reaction to this tabulation

8201-553: The FBI, has access to census data. The census records data specific to individual respondents are not available to the public until 72 years after a given census was taken, but aggregate statistical data derived from the census are released as soon as they are available. Every census up to and including 1950 is currently available to the public and can be viewed on microfilm released by the National Archives and Records Administration ,

8340-417: The House had a similar ratio of representatives to constituents as it did after the 1930 United States census , it would currently have 1,156 members (still just the second largest lower house, after China ). The United States has unusually large constituencies compared to other OECD countries, the third largest in the world. However, most of this is caused by the United States's large population, which

8479-421: The House of Representatives, leaving 385 seats to assign. The remaining seats are allocated one at a time, to the state with the highest priority number. Thus, the 51st seat would go to the most populous state (currently California). The priority number is determined by the ratio of the state population to the geometric mean of the number of seats it currently holds in the assignment process, n (initially 1), and

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8618-512: The House, regardless of population. The U.S. House of Representatives' maximum number of seats has been limited to 435, capped at that number by the Reapportionment Act of 1929 —except for a temporary (1959–1962) increase to 437 when Alaska and Hawaii were admitted into the Union . The Huntington–Hill method of equal proportions has been used to distribute the seats among the states since

8757-506: The U.S. Constitution requires an "actual enumeration" for apportionment of House seats, and that political appointees would be tempted to manipulate the sampling formulas. Groups like the Prison Policy Initiative assert that the census practice of counting prisoners as residents of prisons, not their pre-incarceration addresses, leads to misleading information about racial demographics and population numbers. The 2020 census drew

8896-522: The U.S. House of Representatives ". According to the Census Bureau, "Census Day" has been April 1 since 1930. Previously, from 1790 to 1820, the census counted the population as of the first Monday in August. It moved to June 1 in 1830, (June 2 in 1890), April 15 in 1910, and January 1 in 1920. Because people are born, die, and move during the year, the census counts people where they were or expect to be living on this specific reference date in an attempt to get

9035-516: The U.S. House of Representatives refers to the total number of congressional districts (or seats) into which the land area of the United States proper has been divided. The number of voting representatives is currently set at 435 . There are an additional five delegates to the House of Representatives . They represent the District of Columbia and the territories of American Samoa , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , which first elected

9174-460: The UK, all census formats are scanned and stored electronically before being destroyed, replacing the need for physical archives. The record linking to perform an administrative census would not be possible without large databases being stored on computer systems. There are sometimes problems in introducing new technology. The US census had been intended to use handheld computers, but cost escalated, and this

9313-447: The Union, as well as to other areas under U.S. sovereignty or jurisdiction. There were so many more inquiries of all kinds in the census of 1880 that almost a full decade was needed to publish all the results. In response to this, the census was mechanized in 1890, with tabulating machines made by Herman Hollerith . This reduced the processing time to two and a half years. For the first six censuses (1790–1840), enumerators recorded only

9452-413: The United States for the presentation of data. Census The UN 's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in turn, defines the census of agriculture as "a statistical operation for collecting, processing and disseminating data on the structure of agriculture, covering the whole or a significant part of a country." "In a census of agriculture, data are collected at the holding level." The word

9591-579: The Webster method, which was used following the 1910 and 1930 censuses (no reapportionment was done after the 1920 census). The current method, known as the Huntington–Hill method or method of equal proportions, was adopted in 1941 for reapportionment based on the 1940 census and beyond. The revised method was necessary in the context of the cap on the number of representatives set in the Reapportionment Act of 1929 . The apportionment method currently used

9730-468: The amendment may have instead outlined an iterative procedure for apportionment following a square root rule relative to the population (e.g. R e p r e s e n t a t i v e s ≈ 10000 + P o p u l a t i o n / 100 − 100 {\textstyle Representatives\approx {\sqrt {10000+Population/100}}-100} ) that would still have called for

9869-417: The burden on the statistical office. Indeed, in the UK until 2001 all residents were required to fill in the whole form but only a 10% sample was coded and analysed in detail. New technology means that all data are now scanned and processed. During the 2011 Canadian census there was controversy about the cessation of the mandatory long-form census; the head of Statistics Canada , Munir Sheikh , resigned upon

10008-509: The case Trump v. New York for an expedited hearing in November, given the results are to be delivered to Congress by December 31, 2020. The Court issued a per curiam decision on December 18, 2020, which vacated the District Court's ruling and remanded the case to that court with orders to dismiss it. Censuses had been taken prior to the Constitution's ratification; in the early 17th century,

10147-420: The census even though they may vote. Only Americans living abroad who are "federal employees (military and civilian) and their dependents living overseas with them" are counted. "Private U.S. citizens living abroad who are not affiliated with the federal government (either as employees or their dependents) will not be included in the overseas counts. These overseas counts are used solely for reapportioning seats in

10286-438: The census is also an important tool for identifying forms of social, demographic or economic exclusions, such as inequalities relating to race, ethics, and religion as well as disadvantaged groups such as those with disabilities and the poor. An accurate census can empower local communities by providing them with the necessary information to participate in local decision-making and ensuring they are represented. The importance of

10425-536: The census is that it represents the entire statistical universe, down to the smallest geographical units, of a country or region. Planners need this information for all kinds of development work, including: assessing demographic trends; analysing socio-economic conditions; designing evidence-based poverty-reduction strategies; monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of policies; and tracking progress toward national and internationally agreed development goals." In addition to making policymakers aware of population issues,

10564-443: The census of agriculture , data is collected at the agricultural holding unit. An agricultural holding is an economic unit of agricultural production under single management comprising all livestock kept and all land used wholly or partly for agricultural production purposes, without regard to title, legal form, or size. Single management may be exercised by an individual or household, jointly by two or more individuals or households, by

10703-474: The census of agriculture for development is that it gives a snapshot of the structure of the agricultural sector in a country and, when compared with previous censuses, provides an opportunity to identify trends and structural transformations of the sector, and points towards areas for policy intervention. Census data are used as a benchmark for current statistics and their value is increased when they are employed together with other data sources. Early censuses in

10842-563: The census of agriculture, users need census data to: Although the census provides useful statistical information about a population, the availability of this information could sometimes lead to abuses, political or otherwise, by the linking of individuals' identities to anonymous census data. This is particularly important when individuals' census responses are made available in microdata form, but even aggregate-level data can result in privacy breaches when dealing with small areas and/or rare subpopulations. For instance, when reporting data from

10981-489: The census of the number of seats to which it is entitled. Whether or not the number of seats has changed, the state determines the boundaries of congressional districts —geographical areas within the state of approximately equal population—in a process called redistricting . Because the deadline for the House Clerk to report the results does not occur until the following January, and the states need sufficient time to perform

11120-438: The censuses, the U.S. Census Bureau relied on local people to have some knowledge of residents. Racial classification was made by the census enumerator in these decades, rather than by the individual. The 1890 census was the first to be compiled using the new tabulating machines invented by Herman Hollerith . The net effect of the many changes from the 1880 census (the larger population, the number of data items to be collected,

11259-564: The central government. Differing release strategies of governments have led to an international project ( IPUMS ) to co-ordinate access to microdata and corresponding metadata. Such projects such as SDMX also promote standardising metadata, so that best use can be made of the minimal data available. Censuses in Egypt first appeared in the late Middle Kingdom and developed in the New Kingdom Pharaoh Amasis , according to Herodotus , required every Egyptian to declare annually to

11398-464: The combination of data from registers, surveys and other sources. Censuses have evolved in their use of technology: censuses in 2010 used many new types of computing. In Brazil, handheld devices were used by enumerators to locate residences on the ground. In many countries, census returns could be made via the Internet as well as in paper form. DSE is facilitated by computer matching techniques that can be automated, such as propensity score matching . In

11537-463: The concept of usual residence. Usual residence, a principle established by the Census Act of 1790, is defined as the place a person lives and sleeps most of the time. The Census Bureau uses special procedures to ensure that those without conventional housing are counted. Data from these operations are not as accurate as data obtained from traditional procedures. In instances where the bureau is unsure of

11676-666: The data provides a beginning for the allocation of resources. In addition, collected data are used in aggregate for statistical purposes. Replies are obtained from individuals and establishments only to enable the compilation of such general statistics. The confidentiality of these replies is very important. By law, no one—neither the census takers nor any other Census Bureau employee—is permitted to reveal identifiable information about any person, household, or business. By law ( Pub. L.   95–416 , 92  Stat.   915 , enacted October 5, 1978 ), individual decennial census records are sealed for 72 years. One explanation for this number

11815-546: The decennial census questionnaires are available online from many websites. Computerized aggregate data describing the characteristics of small geographic areas for the entire period from 1790 to 2010 are available from the National Historical Geographic Information System . The bureau recognizes four census regions within the United States and further organizes them into nine divisions. These regions are groupings of states that subdivide

11954-544: The decennial censuses, the Census Bureau issues estimates made using surveys and statistical models, in particular, the Population Estimates Program and American Community Survey . The United States census is distinct from the Census of Agriculture , which is no longer the responsibility of the Census Bureau. It is also distinct from local censuses conducted by some states or local jurisdictions . The U.S. census

12093-548: The federal government's decision to do so. The use of alternative enumeration strategies is increasing but these are not as simple as many people assume and are only used in developed countries. The Netherlands has been most advanced in adopting a census using administrative data . This allows a simulated census to be conducted by linking several different administrative databases at an agreed time. Data can be matched, and an overall enumeration established allowing for discrepancies between different data sources. A validation survey

12232-414: The first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which

12371-423: The form of conditional distributions ( histograms ) can be derived interactively from the estimated mixture model without any further access to the original database. As the final product does not contain any protected microdata, the model-based interactive software can be distributed without any confidentiality concerns. Another method is simply to release no data at all, except very large scale data directly to

12510-785: The historical structure of society. Political considerations influence the census in many countries. In Canada in 2010 for example, the government under the leadership of Stephen Harper abolished the mandatory long-form census. This abolition was a response to protests from some Canadians who resented the personal questions. The long-form census was reinstated by the Justin Trudeau government in 2016. As governments assumed responsibility for schooling and welfare, large government research departments made extensive use of census data. Population projections could be made, to help plan for provision in local government and regions. Central government could also use census data to allocate funding. Even in

12649-466: The identification of individuals in marginal populations; others swap variables for similar respondents. Whatever is done to reduce the privacy risk, new improved electronic analysis of data can threaten to reveal sensitive individual information. This is known as statistical disclosure control . Another possibility is to present survey results by means of statistical models in the form of a multivariate distribution mixture. The statistical information in

12788-499: The internet. It is also possible that the hidden nature of an administrative census means that users are not engaged with the importance of contributing their data to official statistics. Alternatively, population estimations may be carried out remotely with geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing technologies. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), "The information generated by

12927-601: The legal protection of confidential census data, which was not restored until 1947. This information facilitated the internment of Japanese-Americans , following the Japanese attack on the U.S. at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the internment of Italian- and German-Americans following the United States' entry into World War II . In 1980, four FBI agents went to the Census Bureau's Colorado Springs office with warrants to seize census documents, but were forced to leave with nothing. Courts upheld that no agency, including

13066-403: The manner provided by the Constitution. On a contrary supposition, I should admit the objection to have very great weight indeed. Madison argued against the assumption that more is better: Sixty or seventy men may be more properly trusted with a given degree of power than six or seven. But it does not follow that six or seven hundred would be proportionally a better depositary. And if we carry on

13205-439: The many; ... Madison also addressed Anti-Federalist claims that the representation would be inadequate, arguing that the major inadequacies are of minimal inconvenience since these will be cured rather quickly by virtue of decennial reapportionment. He noted, however, I take for granted here what I shall, in answering the fourth objection, hereinafter show, that the number of representatives will be augmented from time to time in

13344-544: The measure 61–37. In April 2010, however, House leaders decided to shelve the proposal. Two provisions of Section 102, subsection (d) in the Washington, D.C., Admission Act by delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and its same-titled Senate companion by Sen. Tom Carper , both introduced in 2021 and again in 2023 during the 117th and 118th Congresses , seek to amend Section 22(a) of the Reapportionment Act by adding one to

13483-524: The mid 20th century, census data was only directly accessible to large government departments. However, computers meant that tabulations could be used directly by university researchers, large businesses and local government offices. They could use the detail of the data to answer new questions and add to local and specialist knowledge. Nowadays, census data are published in a wide variety of formats to be accessible to business, all levels of government, media, students and teachers, charities, and any citizen who

13622-476: The names of the heads of household and a general demographic accounting of the remaining members of the household. Beginning in 1850, all members of the household were named on the census. The first slave schedules were also completed in 1850, with the second (and last) in 1860. Censuses of the late 19th century also included agricultural and industrial schedules to gauge the productivity of the nation's economy. Mortality schedules (taken between 1850 and 1880) captured

13761-466: The next cube; in this case, the next House member would be added when the census population reached 331,373,889, and the one after that at 332,812,558. A variation would split the representation between the House and the Senate, e.g. 592 members in the House (692 − 100 senators). On May 21, 2001, Rep. Alcee Hastings sent a dear colleague letter pointing out that U.S. expansion of its legislature had not kept pace with other countries. In 2007, during

13900-403: The number of elected representatives to regions (sometimes controversially – e.g., Utah v. Evans ). In many cases, a carefully chosen random sample can provide more accurate information than attempts to get a population census. A census is often construed as the opposite of a sample as it intends to count everyone in a population, rather than a fraction. However, population censuses do rely on

14039-583: The number of representatives in each state is in principle to be proportional to its population. Since the adoption of the Constitution , five distinct apportionment methods have been used. The first apportionment was contained in Art. I, § 2, cl. 3 of the Constitution . After the first census in 1790, Congress passed the Apportionment Act of 1792 and adopted the Jefferson method to apportion U.S. representatives to

14178-520: The number of residents at an address after a field visit, its population characteristics are inferred from its nearest similar neighbor (hot-deck imputation ). This practice has effects across many areas, but is seen by some as controversial. The practice was ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Utah v. Evans . Certain American citizens living overseas are specifically excluded from being counted in

14317-416: The number of seats it would hold if the seat were assigned to it, n +1. Symbolically, the priority number A n is where P is the population of the state, and n is the number of seats it currently holds before the possible allocation of the next seat. An equivalent, recursive definition is where n is still the number of seats the state has before allocation of the next (in other words, for

14456-418: The number to 435 in 1912. In 1921, Congress failed to reapportion the House membership as required by the United States Constitution. This failure to reapportion may have been politically motivated, as the newly elected Republican majority may have feared the effect such a reapportionment would have on their future electoral prospects. A reapportionment in 1921 in the traditional fashion would have increased

14595-543: The official keeper of archived federal census records. Complete online census records can be accessed for no cost from National Archives facilities and many libraries, and a growing portion of the census is freely available from non-commercial online sources. Census microdata for research purposes are available for all censuses from 1790 forward except for 1890 through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series ( IPUMS ), and scanned copies of each of

14734-497: The one ordered by the second Rashidun caliph , Umar . The Domesday Book was undertaken in AD   1086 by William I of England so that he could properly tax the land he had recently conquered. In 1183, a census was taken of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , to ascertain the number of men and amount of money that could possibly be raised against an invasion by Saladin , sultan of Egypt and Syria . The first national census of France ( L'État des paroisses et des feux )

14873-417: The permanent House membership for a total of 436 representatives as the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth (i.e., Washington, D.C.) would have been entitled to an at-large district. Holmes Norton's bill previously passed the House during the 116th Congress but not the Senate. Apart from the requirement that each state is to be entitled to at least one representative in the House of Representatives,

15012-436: The present been controversial due to its role in reapportioning political representation. In the 1850s, census planners suppressed information about slavery due to pressure from Southern lawmakers. The results of the 1920 census were ignored and no reapportionment took place, as rural lawmakers feared losing power to urban areas. In the 1940s, census officials were involved in organizing Japanese-American internment . The census

15151-414: The presidency) passed the Reapportionment Act of 1929 which capped the size of the House at 435 and established a permanent method for apportioning a constant 435 seats. This cap has remained unchanged since then, except for a temporary increase to 437 members upon the 1959 admission of Alaska and Hawaii into the Union. Two states, Wyoming and Vermont , have populations smaller than the average for

15290-428: The problems of overcount and undercount and the coherence of census enumerations with other official sources of data. For instance, during the 2020 U.S. Census, the Census Bureau counted people primarily by collecting answers sent by mail, on the internet, over the phone, or using shared information through proxies. These methods accounted for 95.5 percent of all occupied housing units in the United States. This reflects

15429-431: The proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons. Taken at face-value, with the nation's population reaching approximately 308.7 million according to the 2010 census , the proposed amendment would have called for an up-to 6,000-member House. However, in the context of its original construction,

15568-559: The public is the 1950 census, released on April 1, 2022. Aggregate census data are released when available. Under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), using primarily census records, compiled (1939–1941) the Custodial Detention Index ("CDI") on citizens , enemy aliens , and foreign nationals , who might be dangerous. The Second War Powers Act of 1941 repealed

15707-403: The rationale to add the question was arbitrary and capricious and required the department to provide a better reasoning before inclusion. The department dropped the question by the form's publication time. Following the decision, Trump issued an executive order directing the department to obtain citizenship data from other federal agencies rather than via the census. On July 21, 2020, Trump signed

15846-498: The redistricting, the decennial census does not affect the elections that are held during that same year. For example, the electoral college apportionment and congressional races during the 2020 presidential election year were still based on the 2010 census results; all of the newly redrawn districts based on the 2020 census did not finally come into force until the 2022 midterm election winners were inaugurated in January 2023. The size of

15985-498: The reign of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya under the leadership of Chanakya and Ashoka . The English term is taken directly from the Latin census , from censere ("to estimate"). The census played a crucial role in the administration of the Roman government, as it was used to determine the class a citizen belonged to for both military and tax purposes. Beginning in the middle republic, it

16124-443: The same level of detail but raise concerns about privacy and the possibility of biasing estimates. A census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is obtained only from a subset of a population; typically, main population estimates are updated by such intercensal estimates . Modern census data are commonly used for research, business marketing , and planning, and as a baseline for designing sample surveys by providing

16263-402: The same population. Another proposed expansion rule, the cube root rule , calls for the membership of the legislature to be based on the cube root (rounded up) of the U.S. population at the last census. For example, such a rule would call for 692 members of the House based on the 2020 United States census. An additional House member would be added each time the national population exceeds

16402-441: The situation was substantially less clear. Congress passed a law in 1850 declaring future apportionment would be done with Hamilton's method . However, Congress continued to pass ad hoc apportionment bills from 1850 through 1900, in each case overruling the procedure laid out in the 1850 census. This was particularly true after the 1860 Census: the national situation was complicated by the Civil War ), and no real apportionment method

16541-459: The size of each state's representation in the U.S. Electoral College . Under Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the number of electors of any state equals the size of its total congressional delegation (House and Senate seats). Federal law requires the Clerk of the House of Representatives to notify each state government no later than January 25 of the year immediately following

16680-462: The size of its representation in the U.S. Electoral College , which elects the U.S. president . Article One , Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution initially provided: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for

16819-448: The size of the House of Representatives has to balance the ability of the body to legislate with the need for legislators to have a relationship close enough to the people to understand their local circumstances, that such representatives' social class be low enough to sympathize with the feelings of the mass of the people, and that their power be diluted enough to limit their abuse of the public trust and interests. ... first, that so small

16958-500: The size of the House to 483 seats , but many members would have lost their seats due to the population shifts, and the House chamber did not have adequate seats for 483 members. By 1929, no reapportionment had been made since 1911, and there was vast representational inequity, measured by the average district size. By 1929 some states had districts twice as large as others due to population growth and demographic shift. In 1929 Congress (with Republican control of both houses of Congress and

17097-530: The standard of a statistical register by comparing the data from different sources and ensuring the quality is sufficient for official statistics to be produced. A recent innovation is the French instigation of a rolling census program with different regions enumerated each year so that the whole country is completely enumerated every 5 to 10 years. In Europe, in connection with the 2010 census round, many countries adopted alternative census methodologies, often based on

17236-420: The states based on population. The Jefferson method required fractional remainders to be discarded when calculating each state's total number of U.S. representatives and was used until the 1830 census. The Webster method , proposed in 1832 by Daniel Webster and adopted for the 1840 census, allocated an additional representative to states with a fractional remainder greater than 0.5. From 1850 to 1900,

17375-542: The supposition to six or seven thousand, the whole reasoning ought to be reversed. ... In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. When talking about the populations within California's reapportioned House districts in 1951, a report from Duke University found that "[there] is not an excessive disparity in district populations, but [the populations and disparities are] perhaps larger than necessary." If

17514-503: The third by Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Dieterici in 1859. In 1931, Walter Willcox published a table in his book, International Migrations: Volume II Interpretations , that estimated the 1929 world population to be roughly 1.8 billion. United States congressional apportionment United States congressional apportionment is the process by which seats in the United States House of Representatives are distributed among

17653-475: The totals, claiming that he had the authority to make this determination on a Constitutional and past legal basis. Several legal challenges were filed, and a combined suit from 22 states and several non-governmental organizations were found against Trump, ruling that only Congress has the authority to interpret the manner of which people the census includes. Trump petitioned to the Supreme Court which has certified

17792-403: The union, and the population increased. Elections are held the preceding year The ideal number of members has been a contentious issue since the country's founding. George Washington agreed that the original representation proposed during the Constitutional Convention (one representative for every 40,000) was inadequate and supported an alteration to reduce that number to 30,000. This

17931-412: The whole number of persons in each State" has traditionally been understood to include non-citizens for purposes of apportionment. Reapportionments normally occur following each decennial census, though the law that governs the total number of representatives and the method of apportionment to be carried into force at that time are enacted prior to the census. The decennial apportionment also determines

18070-443: Was abandoned, with the contract being sold to Brazil. The online response has some advantages, but one of the functions of the census is to make sure everyone is counted accurately. A system that allowed people to enter their address without verification would be open to abuse. Therefore, households have to be verified on the ground, typically by an enumerator visit or post out . Paper forms are still necessary for those without access to

18209-535: Was again challenged in the courts. While lower courts had ruled for an injunction against the department from implementing the Replan Schedule, the Supreme Court issued a stay of the injunction in October 2020, allowing the census to end early. Around the same time, Trump issued a memo to the Commerce Department on July 21, 2020, instructing them to use estimates of undocumented immigrants and subtract their numbers from

18348-524: Was designed to elicit basic information about the nature of the land and the life of its peoples. The replies, known as " relaciones geográficas ", were written between 1579 and 1585 and were returned to the Cronista Mayor in Spain by the Council of the Indies. The earliest estimate of the world population was made by Giovanni Battista Riccioli in 1661; the next by Johann Peter Süssmilch in 1741, revised in 1762;

18487-405: Was disbelief, as it was widely believed that the "right answer" was at least 75,000,000. This census is also notable for the fact it is one of only three for which the original data are no longer available. Almost all the population schedules were destroyed following a fire in 1921. One purpose of the census is to divide the house seats by population. Furthermore, as with any Census Bureau survey,

18626-421: Was happening and have a basis for planning. The content of the decennial census changed accordingly. In 1810, the first inquiry on manufactures, quantity and value of products occurred; in 1840, inquiries on fisheries were added; and in 1850, the census included inquiries on social issues, such as taxation, churches, pauperism, and crime. The censuses also spread geographically, to new states and territories added to

18765-539: Was superseded by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment : Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of

18904-403: Was the only time that Washington pronounced an opinion on any of the actual issues debated during the entire convention. Five years later, Washington was so insistent on having no more than 30,000 constituents per representative that he exercised the first presidential veto in history on a bill which allowed half states to go over the quota. In Federalist No. 55 , James Madison argued that

19043-518: Was undertaken in 1328, mostly for fiscal purposes. It estimated the French population at 16 to 17 million. In the 15th century, the Inca Empire had a unique way to record census information. The Incas did not have any written language but recorded information collected during censuses and other numeric information as well as non-numeric data on quipus , strings from llama or alpaca hair or cotton cords with numeric and other values encoded by knots in

19182-480: Was used. Apart from 1860, Congress deliberately chose after each census to set the size of the House at a level where Hamilton and Webster's methods gave the same apportionment. This unofficial adoption of Webster's method was driven by the discovery of the Alabama paradox , which created an uproar in the House. The Apportionment Act of 1911 , in addition to setting the number of U.S. representatives at 435, returned to

19321-489: Was usually carried out every five years. It provided a register of citizens and their property from which their duties and privileges could be listed. It is said to have been instituted by the Roman king Servius Tullius in the 6th century BC, at which time the number of arms-bearing citizens was supposedly counted at around 80,000. When the Romans conquered Judea in AD   6, the legate Publius Sulpicius Quirinius organized

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