The Infrastructure of Social Sciences:CNSTAT and CPOP and the Building of
the Federal Statistical System
Margo AndersonDistinguished
Professor, History & Urban StudiesUniversity of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Some Very Old History….
• 1787 Federal Constitution• 1790 First Federal Census• 1863 National Academy• 1878 Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
inaugurated• 1890 Machine Tabulation of the Census• 1902 Permanent Census Bureau• 1916 National Research Council
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Building the American State and its Institutions
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The Federal Statistical System:Survey Data: The Census
• Article 1, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution:
"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers….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 ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."
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The Federal Statistical System: Administrative Data
• Article 1, Section 9: • “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts
and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”
• Article 2, Section 3: • The President “shall from time to time give to the
Congress Information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
The “Infrastructure” of the Social Sciences, 1790 Census Version
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Francis Edmonds, Taking the Census, 1853
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“The Great Tribulation,” The Saturday Evening Post,
1860
1790
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
0
50
100
150
200
250
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Population Growth, 1790-2000
UK FR
US
Year
Po
pu
lati
on
(m
illi
on
s)
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Census Publications
1890 Census Machine Tabulation
1900 Census Punch Card and IBM 80 Column Punch Card
Administrative Statistics Reporting
in the Treasury
Department
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A Decentralized System That Defied Efforts at Coordination
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Learning to Live with Decentralization
• 1940: Position of Chief Statistician created in the consolidation of the Bureau of the Budget (now OMB)
• 1942: Federal Reports Act mandated “forms clearance.”
Social Security Technology.
1930s
UNIVAC, 1950
Proposed Population Registration Form, 1942
Graphic Summary of National Registration System, 1943
Trying Again in the 1960s
• Wallis Commission Recommends the Establishment of the Committee on National Statistics
• CNSTAT created, 1972
Population Controversies
• 1960s: The Population Bomb; Zero Population Growth; Fertility Control; IQ Controversies
• A Hiatus…..
• Committee on Population established, 1983
CNSTAT, Selected Studies on Census Taking, Since the 1990s
Committee on National Statistics, Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, 5th ed.
Committee on Population, Studies on Biodemography, Since the 1990s
Preserving and Recovering History
Ending with a Question…
Is the Past Prologue?
Where have we been? Where are we going?