U.S. Census Bureau Director William Lane Austin visited the White House to be photographed enumerating President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to promote response to the 1940 Census.
Roosevelt's census interview actually took place on April 2, 1940, with census enumerator Raymond Connelly.
Along
with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Executive Mansion was also home to personal secretary Marguerite LeHand,
cousin Elizabeth Henderson, governess Elspeth Connochie, and servants—Ida Allen, Armstead Barnett, Ella
Sampson, and George Fields.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Since the United States conducted its first census in 1790, the population of the United States has grown from 3.9 million to approximately 330 million people. With more than 230 years of data, our nation's censuses and surveys serve as a valuable historical record illustrating America's changes and growth.
Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution mandates that the United States conduct a count of its population every 10 years to apportion the number of representatives each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives. On March 1, 1790, President George Washington signed legislation into law—the "1790 Census Act"—assigning U.S. marshals the task of conducting the nation's first census. Marshals and their assistants traveled throughout the 13 states, districts of Kentucky, Maine, Vermont, and the Southwest Territory (Tennessee) using rudimentary forms of their own design to collect the name of each head of household along with a numeric count of every household's free White males aged 16 and older, free White males under 16, free White females, all other free persons, and slaves as of the first Monday of August 1790. At its conclusion, the 1790 Census found that the United States was home to 3,929,214 people. The largest urban places were New York City, NY (33,131); Philadelphia, PA (28,522); Boston, MA (18,320); and Baltimore, MD (13,503).
Twenty years later, Congress added the collection of manufacturing data to the 1810 Census. The census expanded further with the first questions about the nation's agricultural pursuits in 1820. In 1840, Congress added the collection of governments' data about schools and school attendance. Beginning in 1850, marshals listed the name of every free person on the census schedule, and the number of demographic inquiries grew to include questions such as those collecting data about individuals' profession, place of birth, and marital status.
The Census Act of 1880 replaced the U.S. marshals and their assistants—who conducted the censuses since 1790—with specially-hired and trained enumerators. These census enumerators collected so much data during the 1880 Census that it took a decade to complete its tabulation and publication. Anticipating an even greater volume of data in 1890, former Census Bureau employee and inventor Herman Hollerith received a contract to supply mechanical tabulators to speed data processing and tabulation. Enumerators used a separate schedule for each family during the 1890 Census and collected even more detailed data about individuals' family, employment, health, education, and home ownership than in previous years. One hundred years after the United States conducted its first census, the 1890 Census reported the nation had grown to nearly 63 million.
Recognizing the need to maintain a permanent, specially-trained workforce charged with collecting the nation's demographic, economic, agriculture and governments data, Congress made the U.S. Census Bureau a permanent agency in 1902. The Census Bureau could now plan population censuses every 10 years as well as mid-decade censuses and surveys, including more frequent censuses of manufacturers and special censuses of war commodities during World War I.
Following the 1929 Stock Market Crash and start of the Great Depression, the 1930 Census included both a "standard" questionnaire collecting demographic, citizenship, occupation, employment, and veterans status data, and a supplemental questionnaire that collected additional data to help the government better understand the impact the economic crisis had on America's workers. The 1940 Census was the first in which the Census Bureau used statistical sampling to collect additional data about the population without unduly increasing the overall burden on respondents and data processing. While visiting each household, the enumerators asked 5 percent of the nation's population (i.e., those people whose name fell on the schedule's "sample lines") questions like parents' place of birth, mother tongue, veterans status, and for women, the number of marriages, age at first marriage, and number of children ever born. Subsequent censuses added sample questions like means of transportation to work (1960), Occupation 5 years ago (1970), ancestry/ethnic origin (1980), and grandparents as caregivers (2000). In 2005, the annual American Community Survey replaced sample questions on the decennial census questionnaires. As a result, the 2010 Census used a single, 10-question form for the nearly 309 million people it counted.
Over its 230 year history, the decennial census has recorded the United States' remarkable growth from its origins as a rural, farming nation in 1790 to the world's third largest country (behind China and India), which provided goods and services valued at $21.73 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2019. Participate in the 2020 Census to make sure you are counted in the history of your family, community, and nation.
You can learn more about the history and evolution of census taking in the United States using data and census records. For example:
From 1790 to 1840, U.S. marshals only listed the name of the head of each household followed by a numeric listing of the home's other residents
by age and sex. Beginning in 1850, marshals (like the one depicted in Francis William Edmonds
1854 painting, "Taking the Census")
listed the name of every person living within the home along with their demographic information.
In 1850, U.S. marshals counted 23,191,876 people in the United States. One hundred years later, the 1950 resident population grew to 151,325,798.
The U.S. Census Bureau expects to count approximately 330 million people during the 2020 Census.
The 2000 Census was the first decennial census to use a paid advertising campaign to encouraging Americans to return their census questionnaires. The campaign attempted to reach every adult living in the United States with television, radio, print, outdoor, and Internet advertising in 17 languages.
The 2020 Census advertising campaign began in January 2020. It includes more than 1,000 ads that are expected to reach 99 percent of households in the United States through digital and traditional media advertising, public events, and partnerships.
The "Shape your Future. Start here." campaign assures Americans that the census is easy, safe, and important to their families and communities—thanks to the ability to respond by mail, telephone, and online.
Data processing at the U.S. Census Bureau's National Processing Center (NPC), has changed considerably since these clerks worked in its card punch division in 1960.
Between 1790 and 1880, tabulations were laboriously compiled by hand. The introduction of mechanical tabulation in 1890 greatly sped processing and accuracy.
UNIVAC I replaced mechanical tabulators in the 1950s, but still relied on punch cards for data input.
The 1960 Census replaced punch cards with Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers (FOSDIC) which translated microfilmed questionnaire images into computer code.
Optical character and optical mark recognition replaced FOSDIC in 2000.
For the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau employs the latest data capture technology (CEDCap) to process census forms with limited clerical intervention.