• The Constitution (art. I, § 2) requires only a simple count of persons for purposes of apportioning con-gressional representation among the states. Under Congress’s direction, however, the census has evolved to include a wide variety of information that is useful to businesses, historians, and others not affiliated with the federal government. [Cases: Census 1. C.J.S. Census §§ 5, 8.]
federal census
A census of a state or territory, or a portion of either, taken by the Census Bureau of the United States.
