As America Turns 250 Years Old, the Census is Not Far Behind at 236

For 236 of America’s 250-year history, the census has measured our nation’s population. It has also tracked our values, interests and changes in the way we live.

Census questions, how they’re asked and of whom, capture what’s important to American society.

Housing, employment, slavery, manufacturing, immigration, voting access and more. Public demand for information on these topics has fluctuated over the course of American history, punctuated by the census count at the start of each decade.

How did events like the Westward Expansion, the Civil War, the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement change the census — and how did it adapt over time?

The framers of the Constitution tied apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives to a once-a-decade population count, starting with the nation’s first census in 1790.

We view the nation’s evolution through the prism of every decennial census since.

1790 – The First Census

The Census Act of 1790 was passed by the First Congress and signed by the nation’s first president, George Washington.

On August 2, 1790, U.S. Marshals began collecting the names of each head of household along with a count of all free White men age 16 and older, free children under age 16, free White women, and all other free and enslaved people.

Most American Indians were not enumerated between 1790 and 1850. Their relationship to federal census-taking would evolve over American history.

The first census took 18 months to complete.

Figure 1: The Census in the Constitution

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