FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1999
Public Information Office CB99-250
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: pio@census.gov
Census Bureau Looks Back Over a Century of Accomplishments
From devising neighborhood statistical areas called census tracts in
1910, to the first civilian use of an electronic computer, UNIVAC I, in
1951 and the launching of a multimillion-dollar paid advertising campaign
to boost response in Census 2000, the Census Bureau led the way during the
20th century in collecting, tabulating and disseminating statistics.
Looking back over the past 100 years, Census Bureau Director Kenneth
Prewitt today listed some of the agency's most significant achievements,
noting that each one contributed to its current status as "the pre-eminent
collector and provider of timely, relevant and quality data about the
people and economy of the United States."
"In the next century, we expect to build on these achievements and
continue to be an innovator," Prewitt said.
The following are the Census Bureau's major accomplishments:
- UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer)I -- I The first electronic
computer for civilian use was designed and built specifically for the
Census Bureau and marked a major speedup in data processing. It also
was the dawning of "the computer age." First used to process results
from the 1950 census, the machine was able to tabulate 4,000 items
per minute, double the amount that electro-mechanical tabulating
machines could process.
- FOSDIC/OCR (Optical Character Recognition) -- During the first half
of the century, punch cards, first used in the 19th century, were
still the principal method of tabulating census and survey data.
During the 1950s, the Census Bureau and the National Bureau of
Standards developed a system called Film Optical Sensing Device for
Input to Computers (FOSDIC), which took census and survey
questionnaires that had been photographed onto microfilm, "read"
blackened dots opposite the appropriate answers and transferred
the data to magnetic tape. These tapes constituted the input for the
Census Bureau's computers. One major result was the elimination of
most discrepancies in data records sent for processing. Developed to
help process the 1960 decennial census, FOSDIC played an integral
part in the Census Bureau's data processing system into the mid
1990s. For the first time in the history of the U.S. census, optical
character scanners will be used to process questionnaires in 2000.
The scanners recognize hand-written responses, as well as filled-in
ovals or boxes. Using complex software, the scanned images are
processed and translated into computer code. Then the responses are
transmitted electronically over secure lines to Census Bureau
headquarters for statistical processing and analysis.
- The Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
(TIGER) system -- This digital database of the nation's geographic
features was developed at the Census Bureau in the 1980s to support
the mapping and related geographic activities required by the
decennial census and sample survey programs. This unified,
coordinated, computerized database and its associated mapping
software replaced the need to prepare and collect tens of thousands
of maps and assign geographic codes to the data each time the agency
undertook a census or survey. TIGER spawned a new computer industry:
geographic information systems.
- The shift to self-enumeration -- Prior to 1960, every housing unit in
the country was visited by an enumerator during the decennial census.
Beginning with the 1960 census, however, householders in urban areas
were mailed questionnaires, then asked to complete and hold them
until they could be picked up by an enumerator. Today, the vast
majority of housing units receive census questionnaires in the mail.
Self-enumeration by mail improves quality of the resulting data and
permits the Census Bureau to concentrate its resources in those areas
where the greatest effort is needed to complete the census.
- Dissemination of data to the public -- CD-ROMs played a major role
in the dissemination of data from the 1990 census. The Census
Bureau's award-winning Internet site, launched in 1994, soon became
the agency's primary avenue for data dissemination, permitting users
to find the data they want with a few clicks of the mouse. For the
better part of the century, data users could find the information
they needed only by locating the appropriate printed report and then
thumbing through it.
- Development of statistical sampling techniques -- The Census Bureau
first used statistical sampling methods in the 1937 Enumerative Check
Census of Unemployment to estimate the scope of unemployment in the
United States during the Depression. Sampling was used in a
population and housing census for the first time in 1940.
Sampling made it possible to ask selected questions of every fourth
or fifth household and to produce reliable estimates for entire
geographic areas. The use of sampling in the census led to the
development of scores of recurring demographic surveys, most notably
the Monthly Report on the Labor Force in 1943, expanded and renamed
the Current Population Survey in 1947.
- Use of paid advertising in a census -- The 1950 through the 1990
censuses relied on pro bono advertisements coordinated by the
Advertising Council to encourage census participation. These ads were
run in the media as space allowed and often appeared when
readership, viewership or listenership were at their lowest levels,
thus doing little to increase participation. For Census 2000, paid
advertising became an important part of the plan to promote census
awareness and participation and ensure the right message reached
the right people at the right time.
- Designing business classification systems -- In the 1940s, the Census
Bureau began tabulating data from economic censuses and surveys on
the basis of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system,
which classified establishments by the type of activity in which they
are engaged, promoting uniformity and comparability in the
presentation of economic statistics. In the 1990s, as a result of
cooperative work between Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics and Canadian and Mexican Statistical
agencies, the North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS) replaced the SIC system. NAICS recognized hundreds of new
industries the SIC system did not.
- Establishment of statistical areas -- Following the 1910 census, the
Census Bureau retabulated for the first time some New York city data
for statistical areas relatively unchanging, small neighborhood areas
whose characteristics could be compared over time. This program
became the census tract program. By 1990, it covered the entire
country. Following the 1940 census, the agency started releasing
population and housing data by block for cities with 50,000 or more.
Decision-makers across the country have come to rely on these
small-area data.
- Automated Export System (AES) -- A joint venture between the U.S.
Customs Service, the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Export
Administration, the Office of Defense Trade Controls, other federal
agencies and the export trade community, the AES is the central point
through which export shipment data required by multiple agencies is
filed electronically to Customs. AES is a completely voluntary system
that provides an alternative to filing paper Shipper's Export
Declarations (SEDs). Export information is collected electronically
and edited immediately, and errors are detected and corrected at
the time of filing. AES is a nationwide system operational at all
ports and for all methods of transportation.
-X-
