Evolution of the US Census: Politics, Society, Opportunity, and Innovation

• Activity Number: 589 - Learning from the Past – a History of Censuses
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 1, 2019 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Howard Hogan*
• Companies: U. S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: immputation; sampling; adjsutment; constitution

Abstract

Starting with the 1940 Census, the Census Bureau instituted a number of successful innovations, including the use of sampling, imputation, optical mark recognition, computer tabulation and mail-out-mail back. During this same time, the Census Bureau attempted a number of innovations that were not successful including sampling for non-response follow-up and statistical adjustment. This talk with walk through this history attempting to discern what made for successful innovation and what did not.