Text: U.S. Census Bureau on Technological Advances

The U.S. Census Bureau is counting up its 20th century achievements in the final days of 1999. In a December 22 press release, the Census Bureau describes the technological advances it has made in the last 100 years to advance its responsibility to count up the national population every 10 years.

Some of the breakthroughs in statistical science cited in the release include the first civilian use of an electronic computer in 1950; development of the Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers (FOSDIC), which advanced data processing for the 1960 census; development of a national mapping system using a digital database in the 1980s; and dissemination of census data to the general public via the Internet in the 1990s.

Following is the text of the press release: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Economics and Statistics Administration
Bureau of the Census

December 22, 1999

Census Bureau Looks Back Over a Century of Accomplishments

Looking back over the past 100 years, Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt today listed some of the agency's most significant achievements, noting that each one contributed to its current status as "the pre-eminent collector and provider of timely, relevant and quality data about the people and economy of the United States."

"In the next century, we expect to build on these achievements and continue to be an innovator," Prewitt said.

The following are the Census Bureau's major accomplishments:

• UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) I -- I The first electronic computer for civilian use was designed and built specifically for the Census Bureau and marked a major speedup in data processing. It also was the dawning of "the computer age." First used to process results from the 1950 census, the machine was able to tabulate 4,000 items per minute, double the amount that electro-mechanical tabulating machines could process.

• FOSDIC/OCR (Optical Character Recognition) -- During the first half of the century, punch cards, first used in the 19th century, were still the principal method of tabulating census and survey data. During the 1950s, the Census Bureau and the National Bureau of Standards developed a system called Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers (FOSDIC), which took census and survey questionnaires that had been photographed onto microfilm, "read" blackened dots opposite the appropriate answers and transferred the data to magnetic tape. These tapes constituted the input for the Census Bureau's computers. One major result was the elimination of most discrepancies in data records sent for processing. Developed to help process the 1960 decennial census, FOSDIC played an integral part in the Census Bureau's data processing system into the mid 1990s. For the first time in the history of the U.S. census, optical character scanners will be used to process questionnaires in 2000. The scanners recognize hand-written responses, as well as filled-in ovals or boxes. Using complex software, the scanned images are processed and translated into computer code. Then the responses are transmitted electronically over secure lines to Census Bureau headquarters for statistical processing and analysis.

• The Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) system -- This digital database of the nation's geographic features was developed at the Census Bureau in the 1980s to support the mapping and related geographic activities required by the decennial census and sample survey programs. This unified, coordinated, computerized database and its associated mapping software replaced the need to prepare and collect tens of thousands of maps and assign geographic codes to the data each time the agency undertook a census or survey. TIGER spawned a new computer industry: geographic information systems.

• The shift to self-enumeration -- Prior to 1960, every housing unit in the country was visited by an enumerator during the decennial census. Beginning with the 1960 census, however, householders in urban areas were mailed questionnaires, then asked to complete and hold them until they could be picked up by an enumerator. Today, the vast majority of housing units receive census questionnaires in the mail. Self-enumeration by mail improves quality of the resulting data and permits the Census Bureau to concentrate its resources in those areas where the greatest effort is needed to complete the census.

• Dissemination of data to the public -- CD-ROMs played a major role in the dissemination of data from the 1990 census. The Census Bureau's award-winning Internet site, launched in 1994, soon became the agency's primary avenue for data dissemination, permitting users to find the data they want with a few clicks of the mouse. For the better part of the century, data users could find the information they needed only by locating the appropriate printed report and then thumbing through it.

• Development of statistical sampling techniques -- The Census Bureau first used statistical sampling methods in the 1937 Enumerative Check Census of Unemployment to estimate the scope of unemployment in the United States during the Depression. Sampling was used in a population and housing census for the first time in 1940. Sampling made it possible to ask selected questions of every fourth or fifth household and to produce reliable estimates for entire geographic areas. The use of sampling in the census led to the development of scores of recurring demographic surveys, most notably the Monthly Report on the Labor Force in 1943, expanded and renamed the Current Population Survey in 1947.

• Use of paid advertising in a census -- The 1950 through the 1990 censuses relied on pro bono advertisements coordinated by the Advertising Council to encourage census participation. These ads were run in the media as space allowed and often appeared when readership, viewership or listenership were at their lowest levels, thus doing little to increase participation. For Census 2000, paid advertising became an important part of the plan to promote census awareness and participation and ensure the right message reached the right people at the right time.

• Designing business classification systems -- In the 1940s, the Census Bureau began tabulating data from economic censuses and surveys on the basis of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, which classified establishments by the type of activity in which they are engaged, promoting uniformity and comparability in the presentation of economic statistics. In the 1990s, as a result of cooperative work between Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Canadian and Mexican Statistical agencies, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) replaced the SIC system. NAICS recognized hundreds of new industries the SIC system did not.

• Establishment of statistical areas -- Following the 1910 census, the Census Bureau retabulated for the first time some New York city data for statistical areas relatively unchanging, small neighborhood areas whose characteristics could be compared over time. This program became the census tract program. By 1990, it covered the entire country. Following the 1940 census, the agency started releasing population and housing data by block for cities with 50,000 or more. Decision-makers across the country have come to rely on these small-area data.

• Automated Export System (AES) -- A joint venture between the U.S. Customs Service, the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Export Administration, the Office of Defense Trade Controls, other federal agencies and the export trade community, the AES is the central point through which export shipment data required by multiple agencies is filed electronically to Customs. AES is a completely voluntary system that provides an alternative to filing paper Shipper's Export Declarations (SEDs). Export information is collected electronically and edited immediately, and errors are detected and corrected at the time of filing. AES is a nationwide system operational at all ports and for all methods of transportation.

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