Historical Census Research  Tags: census congress government_information history united_states census  

Questions on the Census Forms:

• 2000 (via Census.gov)
• 1850 + (facsimile .pdfs via UMN)

• Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000
  Govt. Info Center Desk: C3.2: M46/2
  Published by the Bureau of the Census

Census statistics have been collected in the United States every ten years since 1790. The Davidson Library has the major publications from each census; they are listed in our Pegasus catalog, and housed in the Government Information Center (GIC). Statistics are available for population, housing, and social and economic characteristics. Statistics are collected separately for businesses, agriculture, and governmental bodies.

There is a separate research guide available for the Economic Census, Census of Governments and Census of Agriculture.

• 1790 – first census
• 1810 – first Census of Manufactures (now Census of Manufacturing)
• 1820 – Foreign Trade statistics first compiled
• 1840 – first Census of Mineral Industries and Census of Agriculture
• 1850 – first Census of Governments
• 1905 – Census of Manufactures taken separately from decennial census
• 1920 – Data first collected at tract level for eight cities (not published, but available for purchase)
• 1925 – Census of Agriculture taken separately from decennial census
• 1929 – first Census of Business (later called Economic Census)
• 1930 – first Census of Construction Industries, Retail Trade, and Wholesale Trade
• 1933 – Census of Business taken separately from decennial census; Services Trade first taken
• 1940 – Use of sampling began
• 1940 – Census tracts and blocks first adopted as official geographic entity (data first published)
• 1950 – Census of Population expanded into Census of Population and Housing
• 1963 – first Census of Transportation
• 1972 – Census of Business divided into Census of Retail Trade, Census of Service Industries, Census of Wholesale Trade
• 1985 – TIGER digital geographic database developed; first used with the 1990 census
• 1992 – Census of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate Industries separated from Census of Construction