hierarchy. The United States Code, a summary of Congressional legislation applying to the activities of the Federal Government, lists the major areas and territories that must be covered by the various Federal censuses:
“Each of the censuses authorized by this chapter shall include each State, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and as may be determined by the Secretary, such other possessions and areas over which the United States exercises jurisdiction, control, or sovereignty. Inclusion of other areas over which the United States exercises jurisdiction or control shall be subject to the concurrence of the Secretary of State.”[1]
Other titles of the United States Code contain provisions that specify the use of the Census Bureau’s statistics tabulated by geographic area for various Federal Government programs. Such geographic entities usually are governmental units, but some are statistical entities.
Court decisions directly affect Census Bureau geography as well. In the 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court required that both Federal congressional districts and State legislative districts within each State be of nearly equal population size. The ability of public officials to achieve uniformity in the sizes of their legislative districts stems in part from the Census Bureau’s ability to provide them with population counts for small geographic areas.
In 1975, Congress passed Public Law 94-171, which specified the following amendment to Section 141 of Title 13:
“Tabulations of population for the areas identified in any plan approved by the Secretary [of Commerce] shall be completed by him as expeditiously as possible after the decennial census date and reported to the Governor of the State involved and to the officers or public bodies having responsibility for legislative apportionment or districting of such States, except that such tabulations of population of each State requesting a tabulation plan, and basic tabulations of population of each other State, shall, in any event, be completed, reported, and transmitted to each respective State within one year after the decennial census date.”[2]
The Census Bureau met the challenge by giving special attention to the small-area geographic framework for the 1980 census and by working with
Notes and References
- ↑ U.S. Congress, Title 13, United States Code, Chapter 5—“Censuses.” Subchapter V, Section 191(a).
- ↑ U.S. Congress, op.cit., Subchapter II, Section 141(c).
Geographic Overview2-17
