The Census

This article appeared in the GAO Review, Vol. 16, Issue 2, 1981. The 1980 decennial census represents the 20th time that the population of the United States has been counted. In 1889, a former Census Bureau employee revolutionized the business of counting people by the use of tabulating machines. His method of punch card processing became the base for modern data processing. In 1940, the Bureau introduced the use of scientific sampling techniques. In the late 1940's, the Bureau sponsored the development of UNIVAC-1 which was the first computer designed for mass data processing and the first commercially available computer. In the 1950's, with the National Bureau of Standards, the Bureau developed a new input system known as FOSDIC. FOSDIC reads microfilmed copies of questionnaires and thereby eliminates the army of clerks needed to prepare punched cards. The most important purpose of the census is to distribute proportionately the representation in legislative bodies. Federal programs also make extensive use of census statistics to allocate billions of dollars through revenue sharing and grants. All levels of government use census statistics in long-range planning. American corporations use census statistics in planning new products, product marketing, the targeting of advertising, and facilities planning. Census data is published in numerous tabulations with different levels of detail. It also provides data on computer tape and microfiche and produces a series of maps. The Bureau's Data User Services Division provides assistance to access, understand, and apply census data and trains people to use the census tapes and reports. GAO conducted studies to identify, observe, and evaluate controls over the questionnaire processing operations. It determined from the questionnaires the population counts for a sample of enumeration districts and worked with Census Bureau computer programmers. GAO concluded that the reviewed questionnaires were processed accurately and that the corresponding population counts were reliable.