Timeline of the United States Census Quiz

Answer: 1790

In 1787, in Article 1, Section 2, the U.S. Constitution mandated that a national census be conducted every ten years to determine seats in the House of Representatives and to guide tax policy. The first census recorded the head of household's name and also the occupants. Slaves were tallied as three-fifths of a person.

The total cost was $44,000. The United States population in 1790 was 3,900,000; in 2009 it was 308,000,000. There were 650 census takers in 1790 and 650,000 in 2020.

Answer: Manufacturers

To get a sense of the national economy, Congress had census takers to survey manufacturers also, asking for the first time about the goods they produced. U.S. marshals tallied that information at the same time they collected population data. For the first time, in 1905, the census of manufactures was taken separately from the population census.

In the years that followed, the collection of economic data grew in response to war, economic downturns, and the emergence of new industries. In 1860, the census, especially its industrial statistics, proved useful in assessing the relative strengths of the North and South during the Civil War.

Answer: officially-printed forms

On June 1, 1830, census-taking marshals and their assistants began conducting the count, but this time, the federal government finally provided officially-printed census forms so that they didn't have to use whatever blank paper they had handy. Secretary of State Martin Van Buren supervised the census operations and tabulations, and reported the results to the president and Congress.

Answer: the number of "indentured servants" in each household

The census did ask about the number of male slaves in various age categories, and also the number of female slaves in various age categories, but not about indentured servants. Slaves were captured held in forced servitude, but indentured servants were people who signed a bond to work for someone for a specified time in order to repay a loan. Slaves were supposed to work their entire lives for the slave master whereas indentured servants supposedly worked only for a set period of time.

In 1850, all free household residents were recorded, in addition to the head.

Answer: marital status

Marital status was asked for the first time in the 1880 census, and 2010 was the first year that same-sex married couples were allowed to declare. According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the share of people who have never married increased 4% from 2000 to 2008. Also, beginning with the 1880 census, specially hired and trained census-takers replaced the U.S. marshals. Door-to-door census by temporary census-takers was the primary method of conducting the census for a long time.

They called them "enumerators."

Answer: urban

After that 1920 census, Congress overlooked its constitutional duty to reapportion itself, when rural states opposed the loss of power that would have entailed. They would have lost those benefits due to the majority of the country's citizens being in urban cities.

It wasn't until 1929 that a law was passed making apportionment automatic, and it remains automatic to this day. 79% of people lived in urban areas in 2000 compared to 51% in 1920. In 1930, census takers began to measure unemployment. Jobless respondents were not hard to find.

Answer: Univac 1 computer

The engineers John W. Mauchly and his former student J. Presper Eckert began building the gigantic UNIVAC 1 computer I 1948. The Census Bureau signed a contract on March 31, 1951, and in June that year, a dedication ceremony was held. The machine helped tabulate census results during the decade of the 1950s, and the entire 1954 economic census.

However, to this day, the census still relies on punch cards to do so. Electronic punch cards were introduced back in 1890.

Answer: mailed questionnaires to households

The U.S. Census Bureau began mailing questionnaires to households in 1960. As more and more questionnaires were exchanged by mail, the role of a census-taker changed, as census-takers visit places frequented by transient households (shelters and soup kitchens, campsites, etc.) and households that do not return their mailed questionnaires. Today, the majority of households are counted by mailed questionnaires.

The mail-in response for the U.S. census in 2000 was 67%, a decline from 78% in 1970. The government saves $90 million in door-to-door census worker salaries with each 1% increase in mail-in response.

Answer: The Supreme Court ruled against them 5 to 4

The Supreme Court ruled against the lawsuit 5 to 4 in 1999. The cities with the biggest population gains from 2000 to 2008, according to the census, were New York, Houston, and Phoenix. The ones with the biggest losses were New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Cleveland.

The 2000 census resulted in Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Texas each gaining two sets in the House of Representatives. Illinois, New York and Ohio lost seats. In one study, projections and statistical sampling by the U.S. Census Monitoring Board calculated that the final tally missed counting 3 million people, resulting in the District of Columbia and 31 other states to lose $4.1 billion in federal funding. Democrats in particular were upset by this since the uncounted tend to be their constituency--minorities and poor people who are harder to track down or are wary of the government.

Answer: asking the country of birth

The 1850 census was actually the first census in which data was collected on the nativity of the population. 2010 saw census takers use GPS to help find addresses, and also helped assign an accurate location for each resident, helping officials to redraw districts.

The 2010 census form had only ten questions, the shortest since the first one in 1790. The first question was: "How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?" This shortened form used 30% less ink and was printed on 30% recycled paper.

This census was also the first to offer a Spanish-language questionnaire, hoping to get more participation from the Hispanic community, some of whom might be concerned about the form if they were here illegally.

The census does not ask about citizenship, only nationality. These days the Census Bureau gets a lot of its data from the annual American Community Survey, and the Economics Census which is given every 5 years. In March 2020, over 120 million census forms were mailed out. People who didn't reply would hear from one of the 1.4 million temporary Census Bureau hires. Participation is actually not optional - failing to fill out the census is a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of up to $5,000. Giving wrongful information is also a felony.