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The Twenty-Second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13. The United States Census is a decennial Census mandated by the United States Constitution. The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census as defined in Title) is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. 2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census. In Mathematics and theoretical Computer science, the broadest and most abstract definition of an enumeration of a set is an exact listing of all of its This was the twenty-second federal census and the largest single civil administrative peacetime effort in the history of the United States. ^[1]

The U. S. resident population includes the total number of people in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The Bureau also enumerated the residents of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; its population was 3,808,610, an 8. Puerto Rico (ˌpwertoˈriko officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" {{lang-en|"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"}} 1% increase over the number from a decade earlier.

Population profile

See also Race.

In an introduction to a more detailed population profile (see references below), the Census Bureau highlighted the following facts about U. S population dynamics:

• 75. 1% of respondents said they were White or Caucasian and no other race;
• 21. 36% (60 Million Americans) are of German descent; German-Americans
• 12. The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as German Americans ( German: Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States of Ethnic German ancestry 3% are of Black or African-American descent;
• Hispanics — who may belong to any race — accounted for 12. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans of Hispanic or Latino descent, which comprises ancestry or origins in Hispanic America 5% of the U. S. population, up from 9% in 1990;
• 3. 6% of respondents are Asian;
• 2. Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry. They include sub-ethnic groups such as Chinese Americans Filipino Americans Indian 4% of respondents are multiracial (2 or more races). The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from different races. The 2000 Census was the first time survey options for multiracial Americans were provided.
• Between 1990 and 2000, the population aged 45 to 54 grew by 49% and those aged 85 and older grew 38%;
• Women outnumber men two to one amongst those aged 85 and older;
• Almost one in five adults had some type of disability in 1997 and the likelihood of having a disability increased with age;
• Families (as opposed to men or women living alone) still dominate American households, but less so than they did thirty years ago;
• Since 1993, both families and nonfamilies have seen median household incomes rise, with "households headed by a woman without a spouse present" growing the fastest;
• People in married-couple families have the lowest poverty rates;
• The poor of any age are more likely than others to lack health insurance coverage;
• The number of elementary and high school students in 2000 fell just short of the all-time high of 49 million reached in 1970;
• Improvements in educational attainment cross racial and ethnic lines; and
• The majority (52%) of U. Americans with disabilities comprise one of the largest Minority groups in the United States. The most common measure of Poverty in the United States is the " poverty line " set by the U The term health insurance is generally used to describe a form of Insurance that pays for medical expenses Primary education is the first stage of Compulsory education. Australia See also Education S. households have access to computers; 41% have Internet access. A home computer was a class of Personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s Internet access refers to the means by which users connect to the Internet.

Changes in population

Regionally, the South and West picked up the bulk of the nation's population increase, 14,790,890 and 10,411,850, respectively. The Southern United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South &mdashconstitutes a large distinctive The Western United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American West or simply the West &mdashtraditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost This meant that the mean center of U.S. population moved to Phelps County, Missouri. The mean center of US population is determined by the United States Census Bureau after tabulating the results of each census Phelps County is a County located in the US state of Missouri, and according to the U The Northeast grew by 2,785,149; the Midwest, by 4,724,144. The Northeast is a region of the United States. As defined by the U

Reapportionment

The results of the census are used to determine how many congressional districts each state is apportioned. A congressional district is an electoral Constituency that elects a single member of a Congress. Apportionment is the process of allocating political power among a set of principles (or defined constituencies Congress defines the formula, in accordance with Title 2 of the U. S. Code, to reapportion among the states the 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives. The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. The apportionment population consists of the resident population of the fifty states, plus the overseas military and federal civilian employees and their dependents living with them who could be allocated to a state. Each member of the House represents a population of about 647,000. The populations of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are excluded from the apportionment population because they do not have voting seats in the U. S. House of Representatives.

Since the 1790 Census, the first census, the decennial count has been the basis for the United States representative form of government. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Article I, Section II specifies that "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative. " In 1790, each member of the House represented about 34,000 residents. Since then, the House more than quadrupled in size, and in 1911 the number of representatives was fixed at 435. The size of the United States House of Representatives refers to total number of congressional districts (or seats into which the land area of the United States proper has been divided Today, each member represents about 19 times as many constituents.

Adjustment controversy

In the years leading up to the 2000 census, there was substantial controversy over whether the Bureau should adjust census figures based on a follow-up survey, called the post-enumeration survey, of a sample of blocks. (In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution prohibits the use of such figures for apportionment purposes, but it may be permissible for other purposes where feasible. ) The controversy was partly technical, but also partly political, since based on data from the 1990 census both parties believed that adjustment would likely have the effect, after redistricting, of slightly increasing Democratic representation in legislative bodies, but would also give Utah an additional, probably Republican, representative to Congress. (See here and here for background. )

Following the census, discrepancies between the adjusted census figures and demographic estimates of population change could not be resolved in time to meet legal deadlines for the provision of redistricting data, and the Census Bureau therefore recommended that the unadjusted results be used for this purpose. This recommendation was followed by the Secretary of Commerce (the official in charge of making the determination).

Utah controversy

After the census was tabulated, Utah challenged the results in two different ways. The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. Utah was extremely close to gaining a fourth congressional seat. The Census Bureau counted members of the military serving abroad as residents of their home state, but did not count people from Utah traveling abroad as religious missionaries as residents. If this policy were changed, then Utah would have received an additional seat at the expense of North Carolina. North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States After losing a lawsuit over this matter, the state of Utah then filed another lawsuit alleging that the statistical methods used in computing the state populations were improper and cost Utah the seat. This case made it to the Supreme Court, but Utah was again defeated. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary.

Gay and lesbian controversy

Census 2000 Long Form Questionnaire showing the Person 2 section including questions 2 and 3 which allow data to be compiled regarding same-sex partners

The census forms did not include a single question regarding sexual orientation, making it impossible to compile data comparing heterosexual and homosexual populations. Sexual orientation is believed to refer to "an enduring pattern of emotional romantic and/or sexual attractions to men women or both sexes However, two questions were asked that allowed same-sex partnerships to be counted. The questionnaires asked the sex of each person in a household and they asked what the relationship was between each of the members of the household. Respondents could check "Husband/wife" or "unmarried partner" or a number of other relationships. ^[2][3] Responses were tabulated and the Census Bureau reported that there were more than 658,000 same-sex couples heading households in the United States. The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census as defined in Title) is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census However, only about 25% of gay men and 40% of lesbians are in shared-household partnerships at any one time, according to non-Census surveys. ^[4] For every same-sex couple tallied in the census, there could be three to six more homosexual un-partnered individuals who wouldn't be counted as gay. The Census reported that same-sex male couples numbered 336,001 and female same-sex couples numbered 329,522. ^[5] Extrapolating from those figures and the surveyed partnering habits of homosexuals, as many as 4. 3 million homosexual adults could have been living in the U. S. in 2000. The exact number can't be known because the Census didn't count them specifically. Bisexual and transgendered populations weren't counted, either, as there were no questions regarding this information. Missing, too, are data from additional couples living under the same roof as the first, though this lack applies as well to additional heterosexual couples under the same roof. The lack of accurate numbers makes it difficult for lawmakers who are considering legislation on hate crimes or social services for gay families with children. ^[6] It also makes for less accuracy when predicting the fertility of a population. ^[7]

Another issue that concerned gay rights advocates involved the automatic changing of data during the tabulation process. This automatic software data compiling method, called allocation, was designed to counteract mistakes and discrepancies in returned questionnaires. In Compiler optimization, register allocation is the process of Multiplexing a large number of target program Variables onto a small number of Forms that were filled out by two same-sex persons who checked the "Husband/wife" relationship box were treated by the Census computers as a discrepancy. The Census Bureau explained that same-sex "Husband/wife" data samples were changed to "unmarried partner" by computer processing methods in 99% of the cases. Same-sex marriage (also referred to as gay marriage) is a term for a legally or Socially recognized Marriage between two people of the same In the remaining 1%, computer systems used one of two possibilities: a) one of the two listed sexes was changed, making the partnership appear heterosexual, or b) if the two partners were more than 15 years apart in age, they might have been reassigned into a familial parent/child relationship. ^[8] The process of automatic reassignment of same-sex marriage data was initiated so that the Census Bureau would not contravene the Defense of Marriage Act passed in 1996. The Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is the short title of a Federal law of the United States passed on September 21 1996 as Public Law No The Act states:

In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife. ^[9]

With allocation moving married same-sex couples to the unmarried partner category, statisticians lost any data that could have been extracted relating to the social stability of a same gender couple who identify themselves as married. ^[10]

External links and references

• Constitution Article I Section II re Enumeration and Apportionment

United States Census Bureau web pages

• Census 2000 gateway
• Population Profile of the United States: 2000
• Population Profile Introductory slide show, in MS Powerpoint format
• State and County QuickFacts, the most requested information
• American FactFinder, for population, housing, economic, and geographic data

Other 2000 census websites

• MLA Language Map from the Modern Language Association
• How the Census Works via Howstuffworks. Microsoft PowerPoint is a proprietary Presentation program developed by Microsoft. The Modern Language Association of America (usually referred to as simply Modern Language Association or MLA) is the principal Professional association com