The Census: A Brief History
Every decade since 1790 the federal government has counted our population , documenting our national growth from 3.9 million people living on the Eastern seaboard in 1790 to nearly 283 million people spread across the continent in 2000. It is anticipated that more than 310 million Americans will be counted next year.
The Census is a Constitutional Requirement
“The Great Compromise” of the Constitutional Convention decided to have one legislative body represent the states (the Senate) and the other body to represent the people ( House of Representatives). This settled competing interests between the large and small states and ensured adequate representation of both state and individual interests in Congress. Article I requires that the federal government count the population at least every ten years to allocate representation in the U.S. House of Representatives among the states. The U.S. Census was the first constitutionally required national census in the world and the first used to apportion legislative representation.
The Constitution (as amended by the 14th Admendment) stipulates that the census count all inhabitants, regardless of citizenship, voting status, age, race or gender. This method was chosen because in 1788 one became a citizen of a state and then of the United States. After the Civil War, the federal government set standards for citizenship. The size of the Congressional delegation from each state is determined based on the decennial population count.
The First Counts
Federal marshals conducted the 1790 census by going door-to-door. It took 18 months and counted 3.4 million people. The 1830 Census used the first printed forms instead of pieces of papers or notebooks. The census of 1840 significantly expanded the amount of information collected, including information on Revolutionary War pensioners, schools and colleges, literacy, occupations, idiocy, and insanity, as well as commerce and industry. Since the first census questions had grown from 6 to 70.
In 1849, Congress created the Census Board to undertake the 1850 count. In the later portion of the 19th century, the census increased the accuracy, detail, speed and cost. Machine tabulation was introduced in the 1890 census. The 1940 Census was the first to use a more detailed questionnaire, or long form, for sampling of the population to track specific trends within the overall population. In 1950, shortly after their invention, UNIVAC 1 computers were used to tabulate a portion of the mail-back census. By 1970, census forms were mailed to all households. Enumerators visited those households (about 30% of total households) which had not returned the form. Accordingly, the cost of the count rose from six cents per person 1860 to16 cents per person in 1900. By comparison, it cost $15.99 per person in 2000 ( unadjusted) while the 2010 Census will cost about $25 per person.
A New Role in a Modern Nation
At the outset of World Wars I and II, the Census Bureau prepared estimates on draft age men and industrial capacity. The Bureau became aware of the undercount among minorities in 1941 when they significantly underestimated the number of black men of draft age. The issue of undercounting minorities and low income residents has plagued the Census Bureau since the 1940’s. The Bureau has devoted extensive resources to trying to reduce the undercount and in 2000 had significant success in reducing the undercount among minorities and low income.
The undercount declined from 5.4% in 1940 to 1.6% in1990. However, in 1990, the differential undercount between white and minority residents was greater than ever. A concerted effort in 2000 reduced the undercount to .01% nation wide. The black-white differential, while reduced, was 2.8%. With the increase of grant-in-aid programs run by the federal government, the census has played an increasingly important role in state-federal relations. States have come to depend upon the head count to determine the proportion of federal social spending.
.
I
Andrew Cherlin, one of the nation’s leading experts on marriage, has written an excellent book on the state of marriage and the American family. Dr. Cherlin, in an interview with Random House, said that he became interested in comparing our marital patterns with other developed countries when data showed that our children were much more vulnerable to living with one parent than other countries.
Our children experience higher rates of living with just one parent ( 33%), experience higher rates of their parent living with at least one partner rather than the natural parent by age 15 ( four times the average of the rest of the OECD), and have a higher probability of living with serial partners than other developed countries.
These changing patterns of marriage and relationships have left American children to cope with the comings and goings of multiple parents. Marriage and remarriage, multiple partners both in and out of marriage and short-term cohabiting relationships have changed the nature of intergenerational care-giving.
American women’s median age of first marriage is 25, one of the youngest in the developed world. By age forty ,84% of American women have been married, a percentage exceeded only by Spain. We get divorced and end our cohabiting relationships at much greater rates than the rest of the world. More than 20% of all marriages end in separation or divorce within five years of marriages which is double any other country. More than 55% of cohabiting relationships end before five years. Approximately 40% of all marriages end in divorce.
Dr. Cherlin explores how marriage in the United States explores the two contradictory themes in American life… individualism and national good... the me vs we syndrome of American life. This conflict is reflected in marriage in the tension between personal fulfillment and family responsibility.
Both our religious and legal institutions encourage these contradictions. Contemporary religion supports both marriage and the quest for self-development. And while the nation has dramatically improved the collection of child support from fathers over the last 20 years, the law lags behind in the concept of responsibility for raising and nurturing children over self-fulfillment.
Dr. Cherlin offers many recommendations in The Marriage-Go-Round but the major one is “Slow Down”… the last chapter. Slow down getting married, slow down having the first child, slow down the divorce, make the divorce process more difficult and above all develop means so that children will have the financial support necessary after a divorce.
