Chapter 1
Census Bureau Geography
“In its best interests, a civilized nation counts and profiles its people and institutions. Doing so ably and objectively is the abiding mission of the United States Census Bureau. We honor privacy, shun partisanship, invite scrutiny, and share our expertise globally. Striving to excel, we chronicle the Nation’s past, describe its present, and illuminate its future.”[1]
As the factfinder for the Nation, the Bureau of the Census, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, collects, tabulates, and disseminates statistical data to meet a variety of needs. The original and foremost Census Bureau obligation is to provide the most complete and accurate population count possible for apportionment of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Beyond this obligation, numerous other needs for Census Bureau data have developed over the years, such as the redistricting of States for congressional and legislative representation purposes, the charting of social and economic trends, the distribution of public funds authorized in Federal and State legislation, and the administration of public and private programs. All these needs require that the Census Bureau recognize many kinds of geographic areas—legal, administrative, and statistical—as the framework for the tabulation and presentation of data from its decennial, economic, agriculture, and governments censuses, as well as its periodic sample surveys and estimates programs.
The success of a census or sample survey depends not only on how well the Census Bureau designs the questionnaire, collects the data, and processes the results, but also on how well it links the collected data to geographic areas. In defining the geographic area framework for each specific census or survey, the geographic requirements consist of identifying the legal, administrative, and statistical entities to be used; promulgating official standards for those entities, where appropriate; determining the names, numeric codes, and boundaries for the entities selected; entering the required information about these entities into the TIGER data base;[2] preparing the maps necessary to support the data collection and data
Notes and References
- ↑ U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (Strategic Planning Committee), Strategic Planning for the Census Bureau and the Initial Strategic Plan (leaflet), October 1985.
- ↑ The TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) data base (often called the TIGER File) is the set of computer files at the heart of the TIGER System. This computer data base contains all the geographic information representing roads, boundaries, and other geographic features along with their attributes (names, address ranges, geographic codes, and other information). The TIGER System includes, in addition to the TIGER data base, the computer software, procedures, and control systems necessary to update and use the TIGER data base.
Census Bureau Geography1-1
