Vincent Barabba was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1934. He graduated from Woodbury Business College in 1954. After earning his undergraduate degree, Barabba enlisted in the Air Force, serving from 1954 until 1958. After his stint in the military, he attended California State University and eventually earned his M.B.A. from the University of California in 1964.

Barabba became president of Datamatics, Inc. in 1966, and was later named chairman of the board of Decision Making Information. He served as chairman until 1973, when he was tapped by President Nixon to replace the retiring George Hay Brown as director of the Census Bureau.

Vincent Barabba resigned as director in 1976, taking a job as manager of market research for the Xerox Corporation. He returned to the Census Bureau, however, in 1979 after the director Manuel Plotkin resigned shortly before the 1980 census. Barabba guided the Census Bureau through the collection and tabulation of census data from 1980 before resigning again in 1981.

Barabba served as director of market intelligence for the Eastman Kodak Company from 1981 until 1986. He was then named executive director of market research and planning for the General Motors Corporation, a position he held until 2003. He is currently the chairman of the Market Insight Corporation.

Vincent Barabba was the first and, to date, only director of the Census Bureau to be appointed by two different presidents. In fact, he is the first person since the establishment of a permanent Census Bureau to ever serve two separate tours as official director. Barabba has participated in the Census Bureau's oral history program.