In an attempt to help facilitate the continuing national conversation on the supplemental use of sampling methods as a part of Census 2000, this report is offered and contains two main parts:

PART I. SELECTED MOMENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROBABILITY SAMPLING: Theory & Practice This part focuses briefly on probability sampling methodology while pointing to selected moments in its development as a serious tool for scientific inquiry.

PART II. AN INDEX & THE LISTING OF AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY This part provides brief summaries of selected papers which might be of interest to anyone with an interest in beginning a technical background study of the methodology which helps form the foundation of the Census Bureau’s planned use of sampling and estimation to improve the count from Census 2000.

This report is a major revision of the earlier issued report (Third Edition: May 1, 2000) under the same title. We are grateful to our colleagues: Hazel Beaton for her expert typing of this report as well as the three earlier drafts, Juanita Rasmann for editing the final draft, Don Malec for calling the 1786 Laplace paper to our attention, and Yves Thibaudeau who read the 1786 Laplace paper (in French) and verified for us that Laplace’s estimator can be viewed as similar to capture-recapture or dual system estimation.