Bureau of Census - Explained
What is a Bureau of Census?
Written by J. Mance Gordon
Updated at April 21st, 2024
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What is a Bureau of Census?
The Bureau of Census is a principal division of the Department of Commerce primarily responsible for conducting the U.S. Census every ten years. The bureau is also known as the United States Census Bureau helps the government and businesses make informed decisions related to the bureau's data.
How is the Bureau of Census Data Used?
The bureau stores data that over the years has been used by policymakers to govern the country and also make good economic decisions. The Bureau of Census stores information on the balance of trade, foreign import, and export. This data is available to the government and the public. For example, economic and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government contain data produced by the Census Bureau.
The Census
The first census was in 1970 conducted by marshals on horseback. They recorded that 3,929,214 lived in the U.S, with three states being the most populous: Virginia (747,610), Pennsylvania (434,373), North Carolina (393,751). A decennial census dominated the nineteenth century. The bureau noted that the decennial census had collected information on hundreds of topics by the turn of the century. Processing all these data kept the temporary Census office open for almost a decade following the 1880 and 1890 census respectively. In respect to this, the US Congress enacted the legislation to create a permanent census office within the Department of Interior on March 6, 1902. William Rush Merriam was director of the Census Bureau when it became a permanent agency within the Department of the Interior in 1902. In 1903, the Census Office became a part of the Department of Commerce and labor. Following the division of the department into an independent department, the bureau is associated with Commerce. The Bureau conducts surveys of two types: Demographic and Economic surveys. Demographic surveys revolve around the decennial census of population, the American Community Survey, the current population, income and program participation, housing survey, etc. The economic survey revolves around the economy ranging from business, production, construction, finances, insurance, real estate to foreign trade. It also involves the collection of Internal Revenue Service data about households and businesses.