Top Ten Things You Need To Know

1. The Constitution requires a census every ten years. See the Constitution Art. 1, Sec. 2, Cl. 3. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790, under the direction of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. There have been 22 censuses since.
   
   
2. That first census in 1790, found there were 3,919,214 people in the country. President Washington thought this number was too low and the census was inaccurate.
   
   
3. The constitutional purpose of the census is to determine the number of Representatives each state gets in the U.S. House of Representative.
   1. As census results show certain states growing faster in population than others, some states will gain and others will lose representatives in Congress because, by statute, the number of Representatives is limited to 435. 
   2. States that gain Representatives in Congress also gain votes in the Electoral College.
   3. States that lose Representatives also lose votes in the Electoral College.
      
      
4. The Census Bureau counts the population.  It is supposed to count "inhabitants" in each state as determined by one's usual or legal residence, a principle established by the Census Act of 1790.
   
   
5. From the first census until the late nineteenth century, Congress had U.S. Marshals conduct the census. Beginning with the 1880 Census, Congress started to shift control of the census to “professionals”, i.e., statisticians.
   
   
6. The Census Act of 1840 established an office which became known as the Census Office. In 1902, the formerly temporary Census Office was made permanent and moved to the Dept. of Interior. Then, in 1903, it was renamed the Census Bureau and placed under the new Dept. of Commerce and Labor.
   
   
7. Since 1820, in one form or another, questions about citizenship have been asked by the census.
   
   
8. The last time the citizenship question was asked on the census form given to all people (at times called "the Short Form") was 1950. In 1960, that form asked one's place of birth. 
   1. In 1960, that form asked one's place of birth.
   2. In 1970, the Census Bureau created a second document known as "The Long Form," with many questions asked of only a fraction of the population. In the 1970 Census, the citizenship question was asked only on “The Long Form.”
   3. After the 2000, the Census Bureau eliminated the "Long Form, and created the "American Community Survey," (the ACS) which included questions from the Long Form and more, which is administered every year to 3.5 million households.
      
      
9. The ACS asks the question about citizenship. The language of the ACS citizenship-question is the same as proposed to be asked of everyone for the 2020 Census.
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10. Following each census, the Congress itself used to reapportion the US House of Representatives. In 1929, however, after having failed to fulfill its responsibility under the Constitution to reapportion the House of Representatives following the 1920 census, Congress transferred the power to determine each state's number of Representatives to the the Executive branch. So after the new Congress convenes in January 2021, "the President shall transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed, as ascertained under the... decennial census of the population, and the number of Representatives to which each State would be entitled."