The US Census

I'm officially over half way done reading "The Lady Tasting Tea" and so far, it has been full of many aspects of math in the world. The most recent part of the book that I've read is about the event that is actually happening now: the US Census. This happens every year and everyone is required to fill it out or else a governmental official kind-of guy comes to your door.

Anyway, this confidential data is used to find the current population of a place. It also serves the purpose of allocating congressional apportionment, electoral votes allowed for each state, and government funding programs. I learned in government class this term that the congressional apportionment is how the state is split up for representatives based on the census' population for a specified area. A representative is assigned for a certain amount of people. States that are less populated have less representatives all together like Vermont. States with a larger population have more representatives for a smaller land area like California and New York.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics also uses the census information and data. They use the census to analyze pay and benefits, employment, unemployment, etc.

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis also uses the 10-year census for the planning of future sources of good economic growth.

All of these bureaus include many statisticians and mathematicians hard at work for the economic and environmental well-being of our nation.

I am thankful for the US Census because it shows that the government does care about the people and is trying to make sure we're all secure in the economy and that government officials are fairly distributed. But, it's good that the census survey is only taken every ten years so that the government is not taken too big of a part in our lives.