Why count us? There were reasons then, and there are reasons now. Find out about the start of the census in the Roman Empire, and learn how the census works today.
He paced the room in frustration. One of his most trusted governors had stolen tax money. He needed a way to stop people from lying about the number of people under their rule and stealing their taxes. Then the idea came to the Roman emperor - he would count his people.
The Roman census took place every five years. Two people would oversee the counting. This stopped people from "miscounting" so that they could steal the extra tax money.
The Roman men would come to register themselves, their families, their slaves, and their possessions. Anyone who was not registered as a citizen was sold as a slave.
In the modern U.S., people receive census forms once every ten years. Not only are these used for counting tax dollars, they are also used to find out how many children, working adults, seniors, etc. are in the country. The census information can be used to know that we need more roads, more schools, or even more senators!
The census citizens of America receive asks for things such as this:
* How many people live in your home
* The age, gender, race, and religion of each person in the household
* How your parents get to work
The first U.S. census was in 1790. People rode around the country on horseback and counted about 4 million people in the U.S. However, not everyone was remembered; the records for Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Virginia were destroyed before 1830.
It's not only the U.S. that takes a census; Canada, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, France, Russia, and many others also count their people.
The first Canadian census was taken in 1666. It was the first census in North America and encompassed only New France. Jean Talon, the first Indetendant of New France, did most of the work by himself. He knocked on doors and asked for information to compile his results. The first census of the whole of Canada took place in 1871.
Now you know how very important censuses are. They count us, assess our needs, and help make our democracy function.
Author's Note:Special thanks to
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/kids/counting/counting.html
http://www.wikipedia.org, and
http://www.roman-empire.net/society/society.html
