Challenges in taking the U.S. census: Old and new

Conference du Dr. Martha Farnsworth Riche, Cornell Population Center, Cornell University

Dr. Riche will undertake a broad discussion of census-taking issues in the United States, with some comparisons to similar issues in Canada. She will address such challenges as the conflict between a census planning and execution cycle that extends over 15 years or more, and a budget and appropriation process that starts afresh annually -with implications for meeting new challenges in the census-taking environment. Perennial challenges include balancing government's needs for accurate data about the public with public concern about government intrusiveness, and addressing issues of over- and under-coverage. In the United States in particular, political pressures are many and daunting; they also influence public responsiveness, thereby driving up costs and reducing data quality.

Presented in collaboration with the University of Montreal Demography Department, McGill University's Centre on Population Dynamics and the INRS' laboratoire d'étude de la population.