Census Technology, Politics, and Institutional Change, 1790-2020

This article traces the history of the methods and technology used by the Census Bureau to convert individual census responses into published tabulations. We argue that political considerations not only shaped the content and applications of the census, but also the mechanics of census taking. By focusing on federal responses to a specific technical challenge over a very long span, our narrative illuminates the long-run effects of shifting societal preoccupations on bureaucratic decision-making. The case study of the census reflects the critical and shifting role of the state and the private sector in the development of technology. For most of the twentieth century, Census Bureau administrators resisted private-sector intrusion into data capture and processing operations, but beginning in the mid-1990s, the Census Bureau increasingly turned to outside vendors from the private sector for data capture and processing. This privatization led to rapidly escalating costs, reduced productivity, near catastrophic failures of the 2000 and 2010 censuses, and high risks for the 2020 census.