Due to the success of the 1970 Census' mail-out/mail-back questionnaire, the program was expanded for the Census of 1980 to include approximately 95 percent of the population. The short-form questionnaire for this census contained seven questions related to population and 11 questions related to housing; whereas the long-form questionnaire included 26 questions on population and 10 questions on housing. A question regarding Spanish or Hispanic origin, separate from race inquires, was used in all questionnaires due to its success in a five-percent sample for the 1970 Census. Two surveys were included in the new census: the Components of Inventory Change Survey, making inquiries regarding the number and characteristics of housing units that either changed or remained the same between 1973 and 1980; and the Residential Finance Survey, which collected information on mortgages, shelter costs, housing characteristics, and owner characteristics. The U.S. Census Bureau's Census Publicity Office, established in 1978, directed an extensive public service advertising campaign focusing on public awareness of the census and encouraging individuals to participate. A special effort was made to enumerate groups that have historically been undercounted in previous censuses: "M-Night" focused on counting individuals in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, bus and railway stations, and dormitories; "T-Night" focused on the enumeration of hotels and motels with permanent residents.

The State Data Center Program was established to simplify public access to census data via computer tapes. The Census Bureau was to provide free copies of electronic and printed census information and products to each state; in return, the state agreed to develop a network of affiliated organizations, such as state executive departments, chambers of commerce, councils of government, university research departments, and libraries, by which census information would be housed for public access. All states had joined the program by the middle of the decade.

Despite various technological and procedural advances, the U.S. Census undercounted the national population, as it typically did in previous censuses. The African-American population had an estimated net undercount rate that was 3.7 percentage points higher than the rate for all other races combined. Various cities and states, beginning with the City of Detroit, filed suit against the U.S. Census Bureau, demanding that statistical adjustment be used to compensate for census estimates that had been omitted or improperly counted. In the Fall of 1980, the Bureau announced that it would not adjust its population totals because it was unable to determine the number and distribution of illegal aliens and other undercounted groups. A federal district court ruled in favor of the City of New York and the State of New York that same year, ordering the Census Bureau to correct its numbers. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed this ruling, as well as other similar rulings, in December of 1980, which allowed the Bureau to report its figures to the President unadjusted. In 1987, a federal appeals court ruled that the census figures should not be adjusted because the Census Bureau's decision not to adjust the figures was not arbitrary nor capricious.]]>
U.S. Census Bureau]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1980.]]> U.S. Department of Commerce]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1980.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Bureau and published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.]]>
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