Welcome Letter

Welcome!

Dear Friends and Partners:

As the director for the Philadelphia region, I welcome you to our web site. With your help and support, we successfully concluded the data collection phase of Census 2000 and are moving to providing the resultant information to you. For Census 2000, you have reversed a 30-year downward trend in response to the decennial census and made this: "The Good Census."

This could not have happened without Census 2000's tremendous effort at outreach and promotion, resulting in the participation of more than 17,000 community partners in the five-state Philadelphia region. They helped spread the word about the importance of Census 2000 to their communities. These partners represented every spectrum of our society, including religious organizations, schools, businesses, ethnic groups, local governments, and grassroots community groups, right down to block committees and individuals.

Now, we are conducting workshops and presentations in the communities that comprise our region to explain how the data from Census 2000 can be accessed for review of the vital information beneficial to all communities. In the Spring of 2001, the first data from Census 2000 became available to the public and we will continue releasing detailed data through 2003.

As we look to the future, we include many of the lessons we have learned in the planning effort for the 2010 census. In the meantime, we continue to work on the many surveys that are an important component to the policy making process and planning for our nation’s future.

Thank you!

Fernando E. Armstrong
Regional Director