“The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of 10 years, in such manner as they shall by Law direct.”

This is the second of the Constitution that mandates we have a census every 10 years. The Census is the only time we ever try to count every single American currently in existence. Is it 100% accurate? No way. From the time we send the Census forms back to to the time they actually have everything counted hundreds of thousands (perhaps even millions) of people will either be born or die. However, those are statistical outliers and the Census is used to get a picture of what things looked like on April 1, not on September 1 or next year. The Census is used to make projections though.

But do we even need the Census anymore? It was estimated 6 years ago that this Census would cost more than $11 billion (about $35 per citizen). Economists and statisticians are pretty good at estimating the population. Plus there’s no way you can count more than 300 million people accurately right? Not so fast. Economists and statisticians can estimate the population accurately thanks to the prior censuses. They use that data and survey data to estimate growth trends. Then, in the next decade they reevaluate their formulas with the newest data. And even though $11 billion is a ton of dough, it’s less than we loaned to the biggest banks or GM, and the data is used to appropriate $400 billion in federal funds annually. Divided by 10, that means the census costs just about $1 billion annually to make sure we properly give out $400 billion. That’s 0.25% of the funding. So relative to what it supports, the Census is a drop in the bucket. It is still the most expensive statistic in the country and so cumbersome that we only do it once a decade.

What do we get from the Census though? Aside from a count of how many people we have, we also get a count of where these people are in the country, how old they are, and how many people live there. This is also divided into race. So we could learn something like Crook County Wyoming has seen a huge increase in Hispanic citizens. Perhaps more funding should be diverted to that school system for ESL programs. Or maybe the number of people in St Louis has decreased significantly so federal funding should be diverted to areas that are experiencing rapid growth.

It’s also used by other groups than the federal government. A group protesting a new energy facility in an area pointed out that according to Census data the area had a disproportionate amount of seniors and children under 5 (those most at risk because of increased pollution). An organic association lobbied the EPA to stop testing certain chemicals in another area because it was targeting low-income children. The EPA stopped because of this petition.

Perhaps the most important policy change that comes from the Census is the redistribution of the House of Representatives. Because the number of reps we have is based on state populations, those with more people get more reps. The states that grow get more reps, the states that contract get fewer. Estimates already exist about who’s picking up some new reps and who will be losing them. The winners include Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and Utah. Texas will be getting 4, the rest get 1. Some of losers are New York, Iowa, New Jersey, and Ohio. Ohio will lose 2 and the rest 1. Again these are estimates. But the mere fact of a state like Texas picking up 4 is pretty big in the grand scheme of things. The first elected impacted by the Census will be in 2012. By the way, these new voting lines also impact the electoral college for the president.

So is the Census important? Absolutely. Especially for a country as large and diverse as the US. We need to know population trends, and even though we all have equal rights, we need to know what elasticities are growing and which ones are declining. All the data you’ve seen about growing Hispanic populations and declining white populations comes from Census data. It’s good to know these things, not just for federal funding, but policy decisions. So when you get your Census form, fill it out and send it back. I’d be willing to bet a lot of the $11 billion expense will be on sending people out to track down those that don’t fill out the census form.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: government