Who We Are

Demographics, the study of human populations, gives us a powerful tool to identify our community's needs and plan for future developments. This is not an earth-shattering proposition. Everyone from William the Conqueror to the founders of the American Republic understood the importance of a regular census. Article I, Section 2 of the U. S. Constitution mandates an enumeration of all residents of the fledgling republic as a basis for the proportion representation in the U. S. House of Representatives - the origin of our current decennial census program.

With rapid changes in the make-up of who we are, and the need to know such information as quickly as possible, the U. S. Census Bureau has begun a program to fill gaps in the information that occur in the ten year period between each regular census. The American Community Survey polls select groups of the population on a regular basis to track key trends. While not as accurate as the decennial census, it is far more timely. The Census Bureau recently released 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States. Take some time today and feast on the available information about who we are.