Robert A. Heinlein, who would come to be known as the "dean of science fiction writers," was born on July 7, 1904, in Butler, Missouri. Known for the scientific accuracy of his books, Heinlein and other famous science fiction authors like Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Octavia Butler likely inspired many of the 252,242 people who listed their occupation as author or writer in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 American Community Survey.

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Some of the earliest works that can be classified as part of the science fiction genre originated more than 1,700 years before Heinlein became one of the most famous and influential science fiction authors with works like Starship Troopers (1959) and Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). Syrian author Lucian of Samosata wrote A True Story in 200 A.D. featuring space travel, aliens, and a war between the gods of the moon and sun over colonization of Venus. In 1634, famed German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler wrote Somnium about a boy's journey to the moon. Many of science fiction's most iconic and influential works were published in the first half of the 19th century, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) about a scientist creating a living creature from body parts and several of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories including, The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall (1835) about a ballon journey to the Moon. 

French author Jules Verne and British author H.G. Wells, known as the "fathers of science fiction," often credited Poe for inspiring their work. Poe's short story, The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall influenced Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon, while Verne's 1897 An Antarctic Mystery was a sequel to Poe's novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838). Wells frequently credited Poe works like The Fall of the House of Usher for influencing the themes and writing style of many his novels, including The Time Machine (1895). This book popularized time travel in science fiction. In 1938, actor, director, and producer Orson Welles famously introduced radio listeners to the science fiction genre with his adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1897 novel War of the Worlds. Aired as the Halloween episode of the radio series The Mercury Theater on the Air, Welles' adaptation of the novel about invading Martian armies—complete with "breaking news" interruptions—proved so realistic that some listeners panicked, contacted emergency and news services, and sent letters of complaint to the Federal Communications Commission when they realized that they had been fooled.

Heinlein credited the juvenile science fiction series Tom Swift by Edward Stratemeyer and the authors Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs (Barsoom series, 1912-1943), and James Branch Cabell (Jurgen, 1919) for inspiring his work. Like many other science fiction authors of the 20th century, some of Heinlein's most famous work—including Starship Troopers and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress—were published in monthly installments by science fiction magazines. During his nearly five-decade writing career, Heinlein wrote dozens of books, collections, and short stories many of which were adapted into movies and episodes of television series. During his lifetime, he won the first of four prestigious Hugo Awards—presented annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works—in 1953 and he was named the Science Fiction Writers of America's first Grand Master in 1974. Following his death in 1988, NASA named a crater on the Moon for Heinlein (1994); he received induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame (1998); and he received induction into the Hall of Famous Missourians (2016). 

Today, thanks in part to authors like Heinlein, science fiction is one of the most popular genres in books, movies, and television. Science fiction movies like Avatar, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Jurassic World are some of the top grossing movies of all time. Episodes of Stranger Things, Doctor Who, and The Mandalorian are highly anticipated, "must-see" television events. The aisles remain crowded at libraries and book stores as bibliophiles search new and classic science fiction books and graphic novels like Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Frank Herbert's Dune, Octavia Butler's Kindred, as well as works by one-time Census Bureau employees Bernard Malamud (God's Grace, 1982) and Ann Carol "A.C." Crispin, the prolific author of Star Trek, Star Wars, and novelized science fiction television and film adaptations between 1983 and her death in 2013.

You can learn more about Heinlein, the science fiction genre, and authors using Census Bureau data and records. For example:

• Robert Heinlein is known as the "dean of science fiction" and one of the "Big Three" of science fiction authors along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.
  • Heinlein was born in Butler, Missouri, on July 7, 1907. The 1870 Census first enumerated Butler when it had a population of 1,064. Three years after Heinlein's birth, the 1910 Census counted 2,894 people living in the city. In 2020, the census found that 4,220 people called Butler home.
  • Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, in 1920 and immigrated to the United States in 1923. Asimov was one of 14,204,149 Americans in 1930 reporting they were foreign-born. Asimov was a prolific writer, who estimated that he wrote between 1,000 and 1,700 words every day for decades leading to the publication of hundreds of books and short stories. [Asimov was classmates with Census Bureau alumnus Joel Steigman.]
  • Clarke was born in England in 1917 and lived and wrote in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008. Clarke wrote hundreds of short stories and books, as well as the screenplay for the iconic science fiction movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. When that film released in 1968, Americans spent nearly $1.05 billion at movie theaters when admission tickets cost an average of $1.31 per person.
• Data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey found that there were 250,242 writers and authors in the United States in 2023. Of this number, 156,946 were female and 93,296 were male. 
• Interested in taking a science-fiction themed road trip? Consider stops in places like Moon, Pennsylvania; Meteor, Wisconsin; Star, Idaho; or Venus, Texas. You can also watch the skies for aliens or attend the annual UFO Festival in Roswell, New Mexico; search for Lake Champlain's mythical lake monster "Champ" along the shore near Burlington, Vermont; cheer the launch of a private rocket in Culberson or Cameron counties, Texas, or Sierra County, New Mexico; marvel at the bubbling tar pits concealing dinosaur remains at the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum in Los Angeles, California; "duck and cover" at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada; experience a "close encounter of the third kind" at Devils Tower National Monument in Crook County, Wyoming; dodge time machines racing up to 88 mph in the parking lot of the Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry, Los Angeles County, California; or visit Grovers Mill in West Windsor, New Jersey, home to the first "alien" landing according to the 1938 radio broadcast of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds.
• Aspects of fictional tales like Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1865), H.P. Lovecraft's The Whisperer in the Darkness (1931), Heinlein's Space Cadet (1948), and Clarke's The Sands of Mars (1951) became reality when the United States launched its first astronaut Alan Shephard into space; Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. Since then, probes have studied the surface of Mars, the rings of Jupiter, and the icy surface of Pluto. These incredible achievements were made possible thanks to our nation's scientists, engineers, physicists, meteorologists, astronauts, etc., working at the nation's 20 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) facilities including: NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Santa Clara County, California, the Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana; Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Islands, Accomack County, Virginia, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California, and the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
• The National Archives releases census records to the public 72 years after "Census Day." Publicly available records from 1790 to 1950 can provide valuable information into the lives many great science fiction writers and artists. Just a few of the records available include those for Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling; War of the Worlds director and narrator Orson Welles; comic book artist Jack Kirby; authors Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, and Vonnegut; Star Trek screenwriter and producer Eugene Roddenberry; and The Jetsons animated television series creators and producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
• If "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" wanted to "phone home" today, this movie alien might get telephone service from one of the nation's 4,595 employer firms (businesses with at least one paid employee) in the Wired and Wireless Telecommunications Carriers (except Satellite) (NAICS 51711) sector firms employing 889,050 people, or 268 Satellite Telecommunications (NAICS 517410) sector firms with 9,409 employees in 2022.
• Science fiction enthusiasts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries would be amazed by the technology we have in our homes and carry in our pockets. The 1970 Census found that nearly as many homes owned a television (95 percent) as owned a radio (98.6 percent). In 1992, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) reported that 73.8 percent of households owned a microwave oven and 68.8 percent owned a video cassette recorder. In 2023, the American Community Survey found that of the nation's 131.3 million households, nearly 126.3 million owned one or more types of computing devices (desktop or laptop computer, smartphone, tablet, or other computing device). That same year 121.1 million of the nation's households subscribed to internet service making it possible to communicate with kitchen appliances, electric lights, and thermostats; access home security cameras; track luggage; monitor young drivers; and stream media from the nation's 4,833 (in 2022) Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (NAICS 516210).
• Many Hollywood movie stars began their acting careers with science fiction movies. Steve McQueen's first leading role was in The Blob about an amoeba-like alien creature that crashes to Earth; Leonard Nimoy starred in a number of B movies—including Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) and The Brain Eaters (1958)—before playing Spock in the Star Trek television series and movie franchise; Leonardo DiCaprio's first film role was in the movie Critters 3 about furry aliens intent on destroying mankind; and Leslie Nielsen's first leading role was in the 1956 Forbidden Planet. Two years before starring in the 1982 movie E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial, actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore made her movie debut in the science fiction thriller Altered States and years before she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, Patricia Neal starred in 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still.

On July 1, 1902, the Census Bureau officially "opened its doors" as a permanent agency within the Department of the Interior.

President Theodore Roosevelt signed a congressional act establishing the Census Bureau as a permanent agency on March 6, 1902. The move was in response to the statistical agency's need to maintain a skilled workforce engaged in the collection, processing, and tabulation of enormous amounts of census and survey data.

Under the leadership of William Rush Merriam, the agency's headquarters were housed in the Emery Building, at the corner of 1st and B Streets, NW, Washington, DC.

The Census Bureau moved to the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903. It remained in the Department of Commerce after the department split into the separate Department of Commerce and Department of Labor on March 4, 1913.

The Census Bureau has called the Suitland Federal Complex in Suitland, Maryland, home since moving to the campus in 1942.