U.S. Census

The U.S. Census is mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressionalional seats, Electoral College votes and government program funding. (Some states also conduct statewide censuses as the need arises; these are called state censuses.)

The census is performed by the United States Census Bureau. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790, there have been 21 federal censuses since that time. The next census will be taken in 2010.

The population census allocates Electoral Votes and seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to the separate states.

Table of contents

1 About Census Records 2 History of the U.S. Census 3 1850 U.S. Census 4 1890 U.S. Census

About Census Records

Census records and data are not available to the public until 72 years after they were taken. Every census up to 1930 is currently available to the public and can be viewed on microfilm released by the National Archives and Records Administration, the official keeper of old federal census records. The 1940 census will be available for review in 2012.

History of the U.S. Census

Censuses had been taken prior to the Constitution's ratification; in the early 1600s, a census was taken in Virginia, and people were counted in nearly all of the British colonies that became the United States.

Down through the years, the country's needs and interests became more complex. This meant that there had to be statistics to help people understand what 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; in 1840 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 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 censuses of 1880 and 1890 that almost a full decade was needed to publish all the results.

For the first five censuses (1790-1840) enumerators recorded only the names of the heads of household and did a general demographic accounting of the remaining members of the household. Beginning in 1850, all members of the household were named by the enumerator. The first slave schedules were done 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 a snapshot of life-spans and causes of death throughout the country.

1850 U.S. Census

The 1850 census was a landmark year in American census-taking. It was the first year in which the census bureau attempted to count every member of every household, including women, children and slaves. Accordingly, the first slave schedules were produced in 1850. Prior to 1850, census records had only recorded the name of the head of the household and broad statistical accounting of other household members, (three children under age five, one woman between the age of 35 and 40, etc.).

1890 U.S. Census

The 1890 census announced that the frontier region of the United States no longer existed and therefore the tracking of westward migration would no longer be tabulated in the census. This trend prompted Frederick Jackson Turner to develop his milestone Frontier Thesis.

The 1890 census records burned in a fire in the Commerce Department building on January 10, 1921. The only remaining element of the 1890 census is a mere 6160 names from ten states and the District of Columbia, and a special schedule enumerating veterans and their widows, which was preserved because it was in the care of another government department at the time.