The 2010 census will cost more than $11 billion, the most expensive decennial census to date. The rise can be attributed largely to declining response rates. When residents don't respond to mailed questionnaires, bureau officials must personally visit homes, which is costly.
- On the Move: Socioeconomic changes play a role in the census. Americans move around more than they did 200 years ago. While pioneers headed West in the 1800s, more snowbird retirees, short-term renters and students are mobile today. Divorce and group housing complicate matters for the bureau, because households, the unit by which it categorizes people, are harder to pin down.
- Hand-Held Computers: The bureau wants 500,000 hand-held computers loaded with maps and questionnaires that enumerators can carry door to door. At press time, it wasn't clear whether Census would be able to buy the computers. Congress was considering trimming the bureau's proposed 2007 budget of $878 million by $53 million.
- Americans Overseas: In 2004, the Census Bureau for the first time considered counting Americans living overseas. Utah unsuccessfully sued the Commerce Department in 2001 for failing to count Mormon missionaries abroad, saying it cost the state a seat in Congress. Between the high cost of tracking down Americans overseas ($1,450 per household versus $56 per household domestically) and complications with foreign privacy laws, the bureau decided to forgo counting anyone outside the United States.
- Hurricane Katrina: Hurricane Katrina displaced more than 500,000 people along the Gulf Coast in 2005. The Government Accountability Office wants Census to prepare an updated address list of those residents now, but bureau officials say it would be a waste of time because they will likely move again by 2010.
- Migrant Workers: Migrant workers often live in temporary or borrowed housing, distrust government officials and speak foreign languages. To find them, census takers work with local governments and community groups and use mapping tools to locate temporary residences. They don't share any of the information with other agencies, such as Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Census announced in mid-October that the U.S. population was expected to exceed 300 million on Oct. 17 at 7:46 a.m. In 2004, the bureau predicted that the population count for the 2010 census would exceed 308 million and reach almost 420 million by 2050.
| 2001 | $23.6 million | Begin planning and conducting tests on content and response options for questionnaire |
| 2002 | $65 million | |
| 2003 | $145.4 million | |
| 2004 | $252.5 million | |
| 2005 | $388.3 million | Refine methodology for conducting the census and analyze test results |
| 2006 | $447.8 million | Conduct census test at two field sites |
| 2007 | $511.8 million (request) | Finalize 2010 census requirements |
| 2008-2009 | ... | Conduct dress rehearsal, begin to open field offices and to update address lists. Funding requests to be determined. |
| 2010 | $11.3 billion | Estimated cost to complete 2010 census |
Who Knew?
| 1790 | First census cost $44,000 and counted 3.9 million people. (As specified by the Constitution, slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person.) |
| 1900 | 76.2 million people were counted at a cost of $11.9 million |
| 1902 | Congress established the Census Bureau |
Over the Decades
| . | Population (in millions) | Cost of Census (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 76.2 | $11.9 |
| 1910 | 92.2 | 16.0 |
| 1920 | 106.0 | 25.1 |
| 1930 | 123.2 | 40.1 |
| 1940 | 132.2 | 67.5 |
| 1950 | 151.3 | 91.5 |
| 1960 | 179.3 | 127.9 |
| 1970 | 203.2 | 247.7 |
| 1980 | 226.5 | 1.1 billions |
| 1990 | 248.7 | 2.6 billions |
| 2000 | 281.4 | 6.6 billions |
SOURCEs: Census bureau, Government Accountability Office
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