Census Bureau
The U.S. Census Bureau’s mission is built around its large-scale surveys and censuses. This involves the full range of
activities required to produce data, including survey and questionnaire design and data collection, processing, and
dissemination. Research and data analysis will directly support the Census Bureau’s capabilities to conduct large-
scale surveys and censuses. Through strategic planning, the Census Bureau evaluates how best to accomplish this mission.
The strategic plan provides a framework for articulating program goals and builds these goals through consensus. The planning
process promotes synergy, innovation, and efficiency, and represents a better way of doing business.
The goal of the Census Bureau is to provide the best mix of timeliness, relevancy, quality, and cost for the data collected and
services provided. The data provided by the Census Bureau shape important policy decisions that help improve the nation’s
social and economic conditions:
Census data are used to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding.
Census data provide the basis for estimating the gross domestic product (GDP) and leading economic indicators.
Census data determine the apportionment of congressional seats, as mandated in the Constitution.
Census data inform about education, income, poverty, and health insurance coverage.
National, state, and local governments use Census data to formulate policy.
Large corporations and local businesses use Census data to devise their business plans.
To accomplish its mission, the Census Bureau depends on activities that:
Provide the U.S. official measures on monthly unemployment, income, poverty, and health insurance coverage, as
well as economic indicators that include housing starts, retail and wholesale trade sales; international trade;
manufacturers’ shipments, orders, and inventories, and quarterly estimates of corporate profits.
Provide the statistical foundation and benchmark measures against which most data-based decisions and activitie