2010 US Census

I originally wished to make this post about the lack of detail that the US Census form requires members of the household to provide. (The forms only require you to state people's name, sex, age, DOB, race, and place of residence. It makes no mention of economic status, income, employment, etc.) However, after doing some research, I learned that the US Census conducted every 10 years isn't the only one out there, and I decided to share what I learned.

Decennial Census: conducted every 10 years; collects information necessary for determining the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives; described in the Constitution

Economic Census: conducted every 5 years; measures activity of individual businesses with at least 1 paid employee and significant production

Annual Economic Surveys: conducted annually/quarterly/monthly for differect sections of the economy; "measure a wide variety of economic activities, from capital expenditures for food manufacturing companies to annual auto dealership sales"; includes the Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), County Business Patterns (CBP), Zip Code Business Patterns (ZBP), Nonemployer Statistics (NES)

American Community Survey: ongoing, provides data about the community every year

Puerto Rico Community Survey: equivalent of the American Community Survey for Puerto Rico

Population Estimates Program: estimates population numbers between censuses

For more information, check out the US Census Bureau Homepage here.