Implications of the 1970 Census for

tion and housing is to be taken in every nook and cranny of the United States. This will be the nine-teenth U.S. census; the first was taken in 1790. What significance does this event have for health and medi-cine in this country? First, the census plays a crucial role in our govern-mental system. The census provides the basis for apportioning the representation of the members of the U.S. Congress as required by the Constitution of the United States so as to assure a representative democracy. A number of other governmental arrange-ments—such as representation in state legislatures, delegation of responsibility by state government to local governments of a particular size, and many governmental operating programs—also depend on this count. Although the population count is the primary function of the census, it represents only a small part of the essential information derived from census tak-ing. The census obtains the salient characteristics of the people, the conditions under which they live, how Health and Medicine they work, their income, and other basic information for every community in the country. Again, all citi-zens have a vital interest in this because from these data comes the knowledge by which government, business, the professions, and citizen groups, can gauge the scope of resources, the dimensions of com-mon problems, and the trends that illuminate the future. In a leaflet to promote citizen cooperation the Bu-reau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce characterizes the 1970 census as the "Measure of America's Progress " and introduces the idea as fol-lows: What kind of nation do we want? What kind of communities do we want? How well are we achiev-ing our goals? These and similar questions are back of every in-quiry to be included in the 1970 census. Such questions have been back of every inquiry included in previous censuses, and the inquiries have been changed as the needs for information have changed. One of the questions in the 1970 census that i