1820 Census
One of the most basic building blocks of information required for a government to function is an accurate count and understanding of the people it represents. To this end, the United States Constitution mandates a census occur every ten years, with the nation’s first official census conducted in 1790. Since this time, the questions asked of people by the census and the type of data it is designed to collect have changed significantly. Crucially for the functioning of the U.S. federal government, the number of people in each state is used to determine the proportion of state representatives in the House of Representatives. As responses to the census grew from 3,929,214 people in 1790 to 331,449,281 in 2020, the complexity of data analysis has significantly increased. Data collection and analysis began to be mechanized using tabulating machines developed by Herman Hollerith in 1890. Since 1978, complete decennial census data is released 72 years after it is gathered, with the 1950 census data being the most recent available as of 2022. Aggregate data is released soon after the census is complete, which is an indispensable tool for researching subjects like sociology, political science, public health, environmental science, and more.
United States. Census Office, United States. Department of State.
Census for 1820. Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1821.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/asa/Record/264455
A version of this text has been digitized and is available through the Federal Depository Library Program.