Census

The U.S. Census Bureau has the constitutionally mandated task of taking the census every 10 years for purposes of apportioning political representation among the states according to the distribution of the population. The census counts are also useful for federal funding allocation for infrastructure and educational, social, and emergency services. The agency is the preeminent collector and provider of timely, relevant, and quality data about the people and economy of the United States, including topics on populations, housing, businesses, and governments as mandated by legislation.

This entry addresses the decennial censuses of population and housing and the American Community Survey (ACS) as major data resources and refers to other national surveys, administrative statistics, population estimates and projections, and the like. It notes major population shifts and ...