How Can You Participate in Census 2020?
Each address in the country will receive an invitation to respond to the 2020 Census in the U.S. postal mail. Each household, whether family or unrelated persons (or both!), all who live at the address should be included in the reply. You can respond to the Census online, by telephone, or using a paper questionnaire. This is what to expect will happen, and when:
The Census questionnaire and telephone assistance are available in 13 languages. Census information is available in 59 languages.
The Census Questionnaire is not long. How long it will take to complete the questionnaire depends in part on how many people live at the address, but twenty minutes is a good estimate. This page shows the questions asked about every person who lives at each address. Click on the image to see a complete sample questionnaire.
How the Census has Changed
The 2020 Census is the 24th Decennial Census in U.S. history. Over the years different questions have been asked, different technologies have been used, and different techniques have been used to share census results.
The original wording of Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution which established the decennial census reads as follows:
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”
“Three fifths of all other Persons” referred to enslaved persons, present in sufficient numbers to impact the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives and therefore, the balance of power among the original states. The “three fifths” clause was the compromise that allowed the separate 13 colonies to join together as one nation and which placed slavery at the core of our national identity. While this text was removed by the 14th amendment in 1868, which extended citizenship to the freed slaves, the intervening censuses illustrate this painful legacy.
1790 Census
In the first census, taken in 1790, a Census Marshall went to each home and made note of the name of the head of the family and the number of persons in each household by characteristics (not by name). The column headings on the enumeration form below read (from left to right – click on image to view):
- Name of Heads of Families
- Free White males of 16 years and upward*
- Free White males under 16 years
- Free White females
- All other free persons
- Slaves
* to assess the country’s industrial and military potential
Census of 1850
In 1850 two census enumeration forms were used; one for Free Inhabitants, the other for Slave Inhabitants. As you can see in the image (click the image to bring up the full page), the 1850 questionnaire for slave inhabitants recorded (from left to right) the names of slave owners; number of slaves; the slaves’ age, sex, color, the numbers of fugitive slaves, the number manumitted (set free) and the number of those deaf and dumb, blind,insane, or idiotic. As in all preceding censuses, names of enslaved persons were not recorded. This is in contrast to the census of free persons which, in 1850 for the first time, included the names of all persons in each household, not just the head of household.
Census of 1860
The Census Bureau created their first population density map using data from the 1860 Census to illustrate the Distribution of the Slave Population in the South. Click on the image to view a version of this map with zoom capability hosted by the Library of Congress.
Using maps to illustrate census data has become a common practice. This example, using data from the 1890 Census and included in the Statistical Atlas of the United States (1898), illustrates the distribution of persons with German ancestry. Click on the image to view larger version.
Online interactive maps and data files for creating maps that illustrate Census data are now freely available. Beginning in the 1990s TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) files made Census geography available in machine readable format and creating data-driven maps feasible. Click on the map image to try out this interactive map hosted by the Census Bureau, just one of several free online tools available.
Census of 1910
This Winnebago Indian family in Wisconsin was asked over 32 questions by a census enumerator in 1910 including sex, race, age at last birthday, marital status, place of birth, place of birth of mother and father, if able to speak English and if not what language is spoken, occupation, education, own or rent home, whether blind or deaf, and more.
Census of 1920
The 1920 Census was the first in which the majority of the U.S. population, including recent immigrants, lived in urban areas. The change in population distribution, and the impact this would have had on the distribution of power between the states and between urban and rural areas, resulted in a decade-long Congressional stalemate. No reapportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was implemented until the 1930 Census was completed!
Census of 1930
This 1930 Census enumerator traveled on horseback to collect responses in rural areas.
The Census Bureau adopted new technologies to manage the increasing volume of Census responses. This picture from 1930 shows Census staff creating punch cards from handwritten Census schedules. Mechanical tabulating machines were used by the Census Bureau as early as the 1890 Census.
This picture from the 1930s shows a mechanical card sorter from the early use of computing technology to calculate Census tables.
In 1951 the Census Bureau gained possession of UNIVAC I, the first non-military computer ever produced in the United States. A far cry from today’s laptops and smartphones, UNIVAC I was the size of a room and weighed about 16,000 pounds.
Sources
Photographs from the Census Bureau. Images of Census schedules from AncestryLibrary.com
For specific questions asked in each of the Decennial Censuses 1790-2000 see, Measuring America:The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000