Decennial Population and Housing Censuses Guide
Counting the U.S. Population
Every ten years since 1790 the U.S. Bureau of the Census has surveyed the
inhabitants of the country, and has produced statistical reports summarizing
the findings of those enumerations. Taking a decennial census is
mandated by Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution. The number of
persons residing in states is used 1) to apportion the members of the House of
Representatives among the states, and 2) frequently to distribute federal
grant monies to the states.
Decennial Census Statistics
The NCSU Libraries contains summary statistical reports compiled from each
of the U.S. decennial censuses. The majority of the Census Bureau's
products are now issued only electronically. Digital products began
modestly with some CD-ROM products for the 1980 census. More recently
the Census Bureau has scanned some earlier census reports and made them
available in .PDF format.
This guide summarizes the NCSU Libraries holdings of decennial population
and housing census reports from 1790 to the present. The Libraries'
census holdings on these two topics and links to electronic resources are
listed for each decennial census:
Statistics vs. Schedules
In addition to publishing summary statistics compiled from census returns,
the Census Bureau also releases the survey instruments that individuals or
census enumerators completed. Census schedules are held in confidence
for 72 years to protect individuals' private information. The most
recently released census schedules are these from the 1930 census that were
released in 2002. The NCSU Libraries does not collect census
schedules.
The census schedules are of great interest to genealogists and family
historians, and are available locally in the State Library of North Carolina's
Genealogical
Search Room. The North Carolina Office of Archives and History's Archives Search
Room is another source of genealogical information relating to North
Carolinians. Both of these state agencies are a part of the Department
of Cultural Resources, and their search rooms are located at 109 East Jones
Street, Raleigh.
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