United States Census Bureau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census as defined in Title ) is a part of the United States Department of Commerce. It is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census.
In June 2007, President Bush nominated Steven H. Murdock to become the next director of the Census Bureau, replacing Charles Louis Kincannon. In 2006, Kincannon said he would leave the agency when a new director was confirmed. Kincannon said at the time he felt he had lost the confidence of the Commerce Department, which oversees the bureau.[1] At the time of his nomination, Murdock was the state demographer of Texas and the Chair of Demography and Organization Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.[2]
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[edit] Legal mandate
The Constitution of the United States directs that the population be enumerated at least once every ten years (through the U.S. Census), and each state's number of Federal Representatives in the United States Congress determined accordingly. The Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations: the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, and economy. The Census Bureau's legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code. The first population census taken was in 1790. The Census Bureau now conducts a full population count every 10 years in years ending with a 0 (zero), and uses the term "decennial" to describe the operation.
In addition, the Bureau also conducts surveys on behalf of various Federal Government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, crime, health, consumer expenditures, and housing. Within the bureau, these are known as "demographic surveys" and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial (10-year) population counts. For example, these surveys are: CPS, SIPP, HIS, and CE.
[edit] Organizational structure
Since 1903, the official census-taking agency of the United States government has been the Bureau of the Census. The Bureau is headed by a Director, assisted by a Deputy Director and an Executive Staff composed of the associate directors.
The Census Bureau headquarters is located at 4600 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Maryland. There are regional offices in 12 cities: Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, and Los Angeles. The National Processing Center is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Additional temporary processing facilities are used to facilitate the decennial censuses. Out of the 12 regional offices, thousands of full- and part-time field representatives work in efforts to do follow-up work on interviews for demographic surveys. Usually, field representatives must visit individual addresses to gain the trust and co-operation of interviewees.
The Census Bureau also runs the Census Information Center cooperative program that involves 58 "national, regional, and local non-profit organizations." The CIC program aims to represent the interests of underserved communities.[3]
[edit] Census regions and divisions
The United States Census Bureau also has official inter-state divisions, for grouping several states that have similarities together. There are four official regions, with nine official divisions within those regions. They are listed below, with regions bulletted, and divisions of the regions are grouped below and within.
Four Official Regions, with nine Official Divisions.
[edit] Population Radio
The Census Bureau also maintains Population Radio, a real-time extrapolation of information on population, birth, and death to give their approximation of the number of people in the United States and the world.
[edit] References
- The original version of this article was adapted from U.S. Census Bureau text.
- Geographic Areas Reference Manual from the U.S. Census Bureau contains detailed explanations of geographic terms used in the census.
- The mission and operation of the U.S. Census Bureau are laid out in Title 13 of the United States Code.[4]
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- United States Census Bureau website
- U.S. and World Population Clocks - POPClocks
- Works by Bureau of the Census at Project Gutenberg
- Census Bureau Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed
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