Census Every Ten Years

Provision 18 of the United States Constitution is found in Article I.2.3: "A census of the population of each state shall be taken within three years after this Constitution is adopted, and every ten years thereafter." This provision gives every American citizen the Right to representation in Congress according to population in his state and to have the population corrected by a census taken every ten years. The first census took place in 1790 and has been repeated every ten years since. The Founders original idea was simply to count the population in each state. The federal census has evolved into a major investigation to determine many social and economic facts. States and individuals have fought the tendency to gather more and more information on citizens, but the Supreme Court has implied that the federal government remains within its authority. The census is very important because representation and taxes are determined by the population of each state. Parents could teach this information by telling their children how many people have joined their household since the last census was taken in 2000.