Census Bureau - Government Documents - Department of Commerce - Research Guides at University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Bureau of the Census began as the Census Office within the Department of the Interior. It was transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903. The Census Bureau was established to be the agency responsible for enumerating the population of the U.S. for apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives. Over the years, its charge has been enlarged to not only collect and analyze demographic data, but also to investigate the economic activities of the nation and even foreign countries.

Government Documents holds an extensive collection of historical Census publications that contain aggregate data in tabular form as well as special subject reports. Census surveys have covered population, housing, agriculture, mineral industries, business establishments, manufactures, governments, and other topics. Please contact a government documents librarian if you have questions about our holdings.

Historical and current aggregate data covering 1790-2010 from decennial censuses of population and housing is available on the Census Bureau web site. Unfortunately, not all of the Hawai`i census reports have been digitized. Most pre-1900 Census reports are also available in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in HeinOnline (UHM login required). Additional reports covering 1910-1932 are available in the Executive Branch Documents microfiche set.

We have complete sets of the Census of Population and Housing reports for 1970 on microfiche. Reports for 1980-2000 are available in print. We also have a variety of reports for economic censuses, censuses of manufactures, government, industries, agriculture, and other special tabulations.

United States decennial census reports on population, housing, and business for 1960 are available in print in Government Documents. 1900-1940 are available on microfilm (MICROFILM S11388-MICROFILM S11402).

A collection of Census non-decennial publications covering 1820-1967 is available on microfiche. It is indexed in Catalog of United States census publications, 1790-1972.

We also have a variety of general publications, handbooks, manuals, subject reports, maps, pamphlets, posters, CD-ROMs, and other Census materials. You may find Congressional hearings, reports, and documents about the Census Bureau using ProQuest Congressional (UHM login required).

Hawaii Censuses

Enumeration sheets list the individual members of each household and are commonly used by genealogy researchers. Hawaii census enumeration sheets are available in the Ancestry Library Edition database, which is accessible through the Hawaii State Public Library System if you have a library card, or you can purchase an individual subscription from Ancestry.com. We also have the enumeration forms on microfilm for the years 1900-1930:

1900: MICROFILM S00316

1910: MICROFILM S00880

1920: MICROFILM S10694

1930: MICROFILM S11479

View the Hawaii Censuses guide for more information.

The Census Bureau has published aggregate statistics of population, housing, agriculture, and business for Hawai‘i since 1900. During Hawai‘i's territorial period, statistics for Hawai‘i appeared with other territories such as Alaska and Puerto Rico. Starting in 1960, Hawai‘i statistics appeared with other states. Note that many of the files are in zipped format and require unzip software to view.

Decennial census reports

Several options are available to convert printed tables to electronic data that can be manipulated.

Freeware:

tesseract-ocr

Fee-based:

ABBYY FineReader

DBEDT reference maps
The DBEDT maps are a joint project between the Hawaii State Data Center and the DBEDT Office of Planning – Hawaii State GIS Program. These maps display census geographic boundaries and the geographic distribution of selected census data.
Getting to know Hawai'i's census geography
Explanation of the peculiarities of Hawai`i's census geography written by Jan Nakamoto of the Hawai`i State Data Center.
Hierarchy diagrams
The Census Bureau compiles data at several geographic levels, from the entire nation to blocks. Not all information is available at all levels due to privacy concerns.

Internet resources

data.census.gov
Data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Microdata analysis system
Replacement for DataFerrett, used to create your own tabulations from microdata samples.
National Historical Geographic Information System
Access census data and geographic boundary files covering 1790 to the present.
Hawaii Census Data (DBEDT)
State of Hawai`i Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) web site for Hawai`i Census data going back to 1990.
IPUMS
"The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) consists of over sixty high-precision samples of the American population drawn from sixteen federal censuses, from the American Community Surveys of 2000-present, and from the Puerto Rican Community Surveys of 2005-present."
Census Reporter
Census Reporter is a Knight News Challenge-funded project to make it easy for journalists to write stories using US Census data.
STATS America
"STATS America is a service of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. We obtain thousands of data items from hundreds of data sets from dozens of federal and state sources, along with some commercial or private source data. While STATS America adds value to these data through easy access and functionality, we acknowledge the direct agency source of the data on every table, profile or map."

Subject Guide

Gwen Sinclair

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Contact:

2550 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu HI 96822

808-956-2549

Subjects: Government Documents

Government Documents - Department of Commerce: Census Bureau

Internet resources

Subject Guide