April 1st is No Joke for the United States Census

April 1 is not only April Fool’s Day, but every decade for more than 100 years it has also been Census Day, the official day the decennial federal census has been taken. In 1940, however, superstitious officials postponed the actual canvas until April 2, apparently for fear of pranksters preying upon census workers.

Perhaps officials were leery after the 1930 census when the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported on “troubles for the census taker” in which routine questions were met with slamming doors, arguments, and even black eyes and “cauliflower” ears that seemingly reflected residual anti-government feelings from the Roaring Twenties. The Colonial Heights Journal warned readers in 1950 not to provide false information to the census taker—or enumerator—on April Fool’s Day as that would violate the law.

For the federal government, it’s also no joke to be thinking about the 2030 United States census, especially since we’re only four years away. Ahead of that enumeration, the government is conducting a census test this month in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina. Coming off the tumultuous 2020 census taken during COVID-19, the trial will test new digital tools and collection methods to ensure a thorough count—or enumeration—in 2030.

The U.S. Constitution empowers the Congress to carry out the census in “such manner as they shall by Law direct” (Article I, Section 2). Its central purpose is to determine how many members of the House of Representatives each state sends to Congress and by extension how many Electoral College votes each state receives.

In 1790, the first census takers had only the original 13 states to tally, comprising about 4 million people. The questions asked by the census have expanded and continued to be modified each decade. Early questionnaires—or schedules—only involved the “head of household” (usually male). Beginning in 1850, each member within a household was counted separately.

Census schedules during the 19th century included name, age, gender, race, occupation, marital status, real estate and personal property values, literacy, and place of birth. In 1900, the month and year of birth was incorporated. Early in the 20th century questions were added related to citizenship, naturalization status, education, and consumer purchases such as homes, automobiles, radios, and televisions.

During the 20th century the expansion of census schedules coincided with the expanded federal government. The modern census helps determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in funding are distributed to states and local communities in such areas as healthcare, education, public transportation, housing, highway and water systems, and wildlife management.

The data collected from the census has also been used to develop statistics related to tracking such trends as population increases and voting turnouts. Under a headline of “Census May Aid in Farm Problem,” the Front Royal Record reported in April 1930 that “Whether the farm family will continue to exist or will be wiped out by so-called industrialization of agriculture is a question of keen interest to Uncle Sam to which the census of 1930 is expected to answer.”  The Greene County Record seemingly answered that question in September when it reported that Virginia lost 15,213 farms between the 1920 and 1930 censuses, with the total number in the state in 1930 being 171,029.

Local leaders understood the importance of an accurate census count in receiving federal funds. In June 1920 the Richmond Planet published an article entreating Black citizens to contact the newspaper or the local chamber of commerce if they had not been contacted by census enumerators.

The Planet‘s editor, John Mitchell Jr., commented that “it is vitally essential that all of us have our name on this roll in order that we may get credit for the increase” in the Black population during the decade. In smaller towns and rural areas many local newspapers such as the Appalachia Independent published forms to be completed and sent to the census bureau if a resident had not been counted.

It’s hard to imagine in our digital world, but for more than 200 years the census was taken by enumerators who travelled door-to-door to interview people in their homes and complete the questionnaire. Often deemed by newspapers like the York Town Crier as the country’s “largest peacetime effort,” taking the census was a community endeavor as hundreds of thousands of temporary workers were hired to work in the field as census takers as well as in staff offices. In 1960, paper questionnaires began to be mailed to households. This was the main method of enumeration until 2020, when the general public could complete the census online.

When the census was taken by interviews with enumerators they went to great lengths to collect the information, from visiting people in their homes to catching them in the fields and on the job, as promotional photos highlight. In 1900, newspapers across the state like the Edinburg Sentinel and Valley Advertiser reported that census enumerators would be wearing official badges made of “German silver” and that 60,000 had been ordered by the census director. By 1960 the silver badges had been replaced by colorful red, white, and blue identification cards.

The census enumerator’s task of counting the population was demanding. In January 1950 the Fairfax Standard reported that “good physical condition is absolutely necessary” as taking the census is field work requiring “extensive walking and climbing of stairs.” And those serving rural areas needed an understanding of farming to complete the agricultural component of the census. The Bedford Bulletin reported a decade later that “Life for the census taker is not smooth sailing either. One was not allowed to enter a yard by a turkey gobbler acting as a ‘watch dog.'”That same year, the Rockbridge County News reported that three census takers were, in fact, bitten by real dogs.

It’s important to note that the information collected by the census is tied to the official census day of April 1. Information such as age or who is living in the household reflected the official census day and not when the enumerator visited the home or, in modern times, when the form would be completed online.

Reticence about sharing personal information has played a role in every census. Census takers swear an oath for life to protect the information they collect, subject to a hefty fine and/or incarceration in federal prison for wrongful disclosure of information. In April 1910 the Augusta County Argus printed a public service message from the director of the census explaining that official enumerators were “not to be regarded as spies, detectives, policeman, constables, [or] tax assessors,” and they did not “represent any other Department of the United States government, or any foreign nation.”

The individual responses in a census are aggregated to develop statistical data and are kept confidential for a period of 72 years. Federal law protects confidentiality and prohibits the census bureau from sharing personal census responses with any other government agency, court of law, or private entity for any purpose. After the 72-year embargo, census data is released to the public, with the 1950 schedule being the most recently available. The 1960 census will be available in 2032. The Library of Virginia has a variety of resources related to historic census data that can be used for genealogical purposes or to form a snapshot of society during a certain period of time. Visitors to the Library of Virginia can access census records through the library’s on-site subscription to Ancestry.com.