North American Monsoon
The North American monsoon, variously known as the Southwest monsoon, the Mexican monsoon, the New Mexican monsoon, or the Arizona monsoon, is a pattern of pronounced increase in thunderstorms and rainfall over large areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico occurring between July and mid September. During the monsoon, thunderstorms are fueled by daytime heating and build up during the late afternoon-early evening; these storms dissipate by late night, the next day starts out fair, with the cycle repeating daily. The monsoon loses its energy by mid-September when drier and cooler conditions are reestablished over the region. Geographically, the North American monsoon precipitation region is centered over the Sierra Madre Occidental in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua; the North American Monsoon is not as strong or persistent as its Indian counterpart because the Mexican Plateau is not as high or as large as the Tibetan Plateau in Asia. However, the North American Monsoon shares most of the basic characteristics of its Indian counterpart.
There is a shift in wind patterns in summer which occurs as Mexico and the southwest U. S. warm under intense solar heating. As this happens, the flow reverses; the prevailing winds start to flow from moist ocean areas into dry land areas. The North American monsoon is associated with an area of high pressure called the subtropical ridge that moves northward during the summer months and a thermal low over the Mexican Plateau and the Desert Southwest of the United States; the monsoon begins in late May to early June in southern Mexico and spreads along the western slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental, reaching Arizona and New Mexico in early July. The monsoon extends into the southwest United States as it matures in mid-July, when an area of high pressure, called the monsoon or subtropical ridge, develops in the upper atmosphere over the Four Corners region, creating wind flow aloft from the east or southeast. Pulses of low level moisture are transported from the Gulf of California and eastern Pacific.
The Gulf of California, a narrow body of water surrounded by mountains, is important for low-level moisture transport into Arizona and Sonora. Upper level moisture is transported into the region from the Gulf of Mexico by easterly winds aloft. Once the forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental green up from the initial monsoon rains and plant transpiration can add additional moisture to the atmosphere which will flow into Arizona. If the southern Plains of the U. S. are unusually wet and green during the early summer months, that area can serve as a moisture source. As precipitable water values rise in early summer, brief but torrential thunderstorms can occur over mountainous terrain; this activity is enhanced by the passage of tropical waves and the entrainment of the remnants of tropical cyclones. Monsoons play a vital role in managing wildfire threat by providing moisture at higher elevations and feeding desert streams. Heavy monsoon rain can lead in turn a summer wildfire risk. A lack of monsoon rain can hamper summer seeding, reducing excess winter plant growth but worsening drought.
Flash flooding is a serious danger during the monsoon. Dry washes can become raging rivers in an instant when no storms are visible as a storm can cause a flash flood tens of miles away. Lightning strikes are a significant danger; because it is dangerous to be caught in the open when these storms appear, many golf courses in Arizona have thunderstorm warning systems. Rainfall during the monsoon is not continuous, it varies depending on a variety of factors. There are distinct "burst" periods of heavy rain during the monsoon, "break" periods with little or no rain. Monsoon precipitation, accounts for a substantial portion of annual precipitation in northwest Mexico and the Southwest U. S. Most of these areas receive over half their annual precipitation from the monsoon; the North American Monsoon circulation pattern develops in late May or early June over southwest Mexico. By mid to late summer, thunderstorms increase over the "core" region of the southwest U. S. and northwest Mexico, including the U.
S. and Mexican states of Arizona, New Mexico, Chihuahua and Durango. The monsoon arrives in mid to late June over northwest Mexico, early July over the southwest U. S. Once the monsoon is underway, mountain ranges, including the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Mogollon Rim provide a focusing mechanism for the daily development of thunderstorms, thus much of the monsoon rainfall occurs in mountainous terrain. For example, monsoon rainfall in the Sierra Madre Occidental ranges from 10 to 15 inches. Since the southwest U. S. is at the northern fringe of the monsoon, precipitation tends to be more variable. Areas farther west of the core monsoon region, namely California and Baja California receive only spotty monsoon-related rainfall. In those areas, the intense solar heating is not strong enough to overcome a continual supply of cold water from the North Pacific Ocean moving down the west coast of North America. Winds do turn toward the land in these areas, but the cool moist air stabilizes the atmosphere.
The monsoon pushes as far west as the Peninsular Ranges and Transverse Ranges of southern California, but reaches the coastal strip. As shown in the panorama below, a wall of thunderstorms, only a half-hour's drive away, is a common sight from the sunny skies along the coas
Pima County, Arizona
Pima County is a county in the south central region of the U. S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census, the population was 980,263; the county seat is Tucson. The county is named after the Pima Native Americans. Pima County includes Arizona Metropolitan Statistical Area. Pima County contains parts of the Tohono O'odham Nation, as well as all of the San Xavier Indian Reservation, the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Ironwood Forest National Monument and Saguaro National Park; the vast majority of the county population lies in and around the city of Tucson, filling much of the eastern part of the county with urban development. Tucson, Arizona's second largest city, is a major academic center. Other urban areas include the Tucson suburbs of Oro Valley, Marana and South Tucson, a large ring of unincorporated urban development, the growing satellite town Green Valley; the rest of the county is sparsely populated. Pima County, one of the four original counties in Arizona, was created by the 1st Arizona Territorial Legislature with land acquired through the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico in 1853.
The original county consisted of all of Arizona Territory east of longitude 113° 20' and south of the Gila River. Soon thereafter, the counties of Cochise and Santa Cruz were carved from the original Pima County. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 9,189 square miles, of which 9,187 square miles is land and 2.1 square miles is water. Mountains of Pima County Fresnal Canyon Interstate 10 Interstate 19 State Route 77 State Route 83 State Route 85 State Route 86 State Route 210 State Route 989 Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge Coronado National Forest Ironwood Forest National Monument Las Cienegas National Conservation Area Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Saguaro National Park The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is Pima County’s plan for desert conservation; as of the 2000 census, there were 843,746 people, 332,350 households, 212,039 families residing in the county. The population density was 92 people per square mile.
There were 366,737 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 75.07% White, 3.03% Black or African American, 3.22% Native American, 2.04% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 13.30% from other races, 3.21% from two or more races. 29.34% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 22.80% reported speaking Spanish at home. There were 332,350 households out of which 29.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.70% were married couples living together, 11.80% had a female householder with no husband present, 36.20% were non-families. 28.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.40% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.06. In the county, the population was spread out with 24.60% under the age of 18, 10.90% from 18 to 24, 28.40% from 25 to 44, 21.90% from 45 to 64, 14.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years.
For every 100 females there were 95.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.70 males. The median income for a household in the county was $36,758, the median income for a family was $44,446. Males had a median income of $32,156 versus $24,959 for females; the per capita income for the county was $19,785. About 10.50% of families and 14.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.40% of those under age 18 and 8.20% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2010 census, there were 980,263 people, 388,660 households, 243,167 families residing in the county; the population density was 106.7 inhabitants per square mile. There were 440,909 housing units at an average density of 48.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 74.3% white, 3.5% black or African American, 3.3% American Indian, 2.6% Asian, 0.2% Pacific islander, 12.3% from other races, 3.7% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 34.6% of the population. The largest ancestry groups were: Of the 388,660 households, 29.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.5% were married couples living together, 12.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.4% were non-families, 29.2% of all households were made up of individuals.
The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.06. The median age was 37.7 years. The median income for a household in the county was $45,521 and the median income for a family was $57,377. Males had a median income of $42,313 versus $33,487 for females; the per capita income for the county was $25,093. About 11.2% of families and 16.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.6% of those under age 18 and 8.5% of those age 65 or over. The United States Office of Management and Budget has designated Pima County as the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area; the United States Census Bureau ranked the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area as the 53rd most populous metropolitan statistical area of the United States as of July 1, 2012. The Office of Management and Budget has further designated the Tucson, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area as a component of the more extensive Tucson-Nogales, AZ Combined St
Continental, Arizona
Continental is a populated place located about 25 mi south of Tucson, in Pima County, near the town of Sahuarita and the retirement community of Green Valley. Once a center for cotton production, Continental is now nearly surrounded by large pecan orchards and Green Valley subdivisions, it is the closest town to Madera Canyon, a premier birdwatching area and tourist attraction located in the Santa Rita Mountains. Continental was founded during World War I in 1916, after President Woodrow Wilson asked the Intercontinental Rubber Company of Bernard Baruch, Joseph Kennedy, J. P. Morgan to grow guayule. Guayule is a plant that produces latex and can be used to make rubber if, as many Americans feared, the German navy were to cut off shipping lanes and imports of rubber from the Far East. In 1916, Intercontinental established the Continental Farm seven miles south of Sahuarita and east of the present-day Green Valley, along the eastern banks of the Santa Cruz River and the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Over the next few years, a small town was built to accommodate the workers at the farm. In addition to several large adobe homes that were built for the farmers around 1918, the fields and the processing facility built for the guayule, the town of Continental had a post office that opened in 1917, a schoolhouse, built in 1918, a church, a general store, its own cemetery; the guayule project was abandoned after the end of World War I. In 1922, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands bought the farm and rented the fields to cotton farmers until 1949. In 1926, an Arkansas farmer named James B. Bull acquired a 160-acre plot in between Sahuraita. Naming it the Bull Farm, James raised alfalfa and grains until 1975. At its peak, Bull Farm was one of the largest in the area with its 6,150 acres. In 1939, the Bull Farm was used in the filming of The Westerner. During World War II, in late 1944, the United States Army established a prisoner of war camp for German POWs next to the farm. Camp Continental, as it was called, was built to house forty guards.
Because of a labor shortage caused by the war, the prisoners were put to work in the nearby fields. Although little is known about the history of the camp, on more than one occasion the American guards had to use billy clubs to "quell disorderly prisoners as they were prone to pro-Nazi uprisings." Nothing remains of the camp and in 1989 the site of the Bull Farm became the present-day Quail Creek retirement development center. In 1948, R. Keith Walden relocated his Farmers Investment Company from California to Arizona and purchased the Continental Farm to use as his headquarters. In the 1950s, Keith grew concerned that competition from synthetic fibers would threaten the cotton market and in 1965 he transitioned his farming operation to pecans as an alternative crop. Keith chose pecans because of their compatibility with the climate of the Sonoran Desert. FICO is still owned by the Walden family and their orchards combine to form the largest pecan grove in the world. Today, several of the old adobe homes in Continental are still in use.
The old Continental School was replaced in the 1990s by a new facility located about one mile to the east. The old school now serves as the Continental Community Center; the Continental Cemetery is located northeast of the old school, is now surrounded by the Madera Reserve subdivision. Considered to be a holy site by local Indians, the cemetery has been in use since 1903, the oldest marked grave is from 1918. Santa Rita Experimental Range and Wildlife Area United States home front during World War I United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution Arizona during World War II
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city and the county seat of Pima County, United States, home to the University of Arizona. The 2010 United States Census put the population at 520,116, while the 2015 estimated population of the entire Tucson metropolitan statistical area was 980,263; the Tucson MSA forms part of the larger Tucson-Nogales combined statistical area, with a total population of 1,010,025 as of the 2010 Census. Tucson is the second-largest populated city in Arizona behind Phoenix, both of which anchor the Arizona Sun Corridor; the city is 108 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 mi north of the U. S.–Mexico border. Tucson is the 58th largest metropolitan area in the United States. Major incorporated suburbs of Tucson include Oro Valley and Marana northwest of the city, Sahuarita south of the city, South Tucson in an enclave south of downtown. Communities in the vicinity of Tucson include Casas Adobes, Catalina Foothills, Flowing Wells, Midvale Park, Tanque Verde and Vail. Towns outside the Tucson metro area include Benson to the southeast and Oracle to the north, Green Valley to the south.
The Spanish name of the city, Tucsón, is derived from the O'odham Cuk Ṣon, meaning " base of the black ", a reference to a basalt-covered hill now known as Sentinel Peak known as "A" Mountain. Tucson is sometimes referred to as "The Old Pueblo". Tucson was first visited by Paleo-Indians, known to have been in southern Arizona about 12,000 years ago. Recent archaeological excavations near the Santa Cruz River found a village site dating from 2100 BC; the floodplain of the Santa Cruz River was extensively farmed during the Early Agricultural Period, circa 1200 BC to AD 150. These people constructed irrigation canals and grew corn and other crops while gathering wild plants and hunting; the Early Ceramic period occupation of Tucson saw the first extensive use of pottery vessels for cooking and storage. The groups designated as the Hohokam lived in the area from AD 600 to 1450 and are known for their vast irrigation canal systems and their red-on-brown pottery. Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino visited the Santa Cruz River valley in 1692, founded the Mission San Xavier del Bac in 1700 about 7 mi upstream from the site of the settlement of Tucson.
A separate Convento settlement was founded downstream along the Santa Cruz River, near the base of what is now "A" mountain. Hugo O'Conor, the founding father of the city of Tucson, Arizona authorized the construction of a military fort in that location, Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, on August 20, 1775. During the Spanish period of the presidio, attacks such as the Second Battle of Tucson were mounted by Apaches; the town came to be called "Tucson" and became a part of the state of Sonora after Mexico gained independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821. Tucson was captured by Philip St. George Cooke with the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican–American War in 1846-1848, but it soon returned to Mexican control as Cooke continued his mission westward establishing Cooke's Wagon Road to California. Tucson was not included in the Mexican Cession and Cooke's road through Tucson became one of the important routes into California during the California Gold Rush of 1849. Arizona, south of the Gila River, was obtained via treaty from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase on June 8, 1854.
Tucson became a part of the United States of America, although the American military did not formally take over control until March 1856. In 1857, Tucson became a stage station on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and in 1858 became 3rd division headquarters of the Butterfield Overland Mail until the line shut down in March 1861; the Overland Mail Corporation attempted to continue running, following the Bascom Affair, devastating Apache attacks on the stations and coaches ended operations in August 1861. From August 1861 to mid-1862, Tucson was the western capital of the Confederate Arizona Territory, the eastern capital being Mesilla. In 1862, the California Column drove the Confederate forces out of Arizona. Tucson and all of what is now Arizona were part of New Mexico Territory until 1863, when they became part of the new Arizona Territory. From 1867 to 1877, Tucson was the capital of the Arizona Territory. Tucson was incorporated in 1877. From 1877 to 1878, the area suffered a rash of stagecoach robberies.
Most notable were the two holdups committed by masked road-agent William Whitney Brazelton. Brazelton held up two stages in the summer of 1878 near Point of Mountain Station 17 mi northwest of Tucson. John Clum, of Tombstone, Arizona fame was one of the passengers. Pima County Sheriff Charles A. Shibell and his citizen posse killed Brazelton on Monday August 19, 1878, in a mesquite bosque along the Santa Cruz River 3 miles south of Tucson. Brazelton had been suspected of highway robbery in the Tucson area, the Prescott region and Silver City, New Mexico area. Brazelton's crimes prompted John J. Valentine, Sr. of Wells, Fargo & Co. to send special agent and future Pima County sheriff Bob Paul to investigate. Fort Lowell east of Tucson, was established to help protect settlers from Apache attacks. In 1882, Frank Stilwell was implicated in the murder of Morgan Earp by Cowboy Pete Spence's wife, Marietta, at the coroner's inquest on Morgan Earp's shooting; the coroner's jury concluded Spence, Frederick Bode, Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz were the prime suspects in the assassination of Morgan Earp.
Deputy U. S. Marshal Wyatt Earp gathered a few trusted friends and accompanied
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. The term is used in connection with national population and housing censuses; the United Nations defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as "individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory and defined periodicity", recommends that population censuses be taken at least every 10 years. United Nations recommendations cover census topics to be collected, official definitions and other useful information to co-ordinate international practice; the word is of Latin origin: during the Roman Republic, the census was a list that kept track of all adult males fit for military service. The modern census is essential to international comparisons of any kind of statistics, censuses collect data on many attributes of a population, not just how many people there are. Censuses began as the only method of collecting national demographic data, are now part of a larger system of different surveys.
Although population estimates remain an important function of a census, including the geographic distribution of the population, statistics can be produced about combinations of attributes e.g. education by age and sex in different regions. Current administrative data systems allow for other approaches to enumeration with the same level of detail but raise concerns about privacy and the possibility of biasing estimates. A census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is obtained only from a subset of a population. Modern census data are used for research, business marketing, planning, as a baseline for designing sample surveys by providing a sampling frame such as an address register. Census counts are necessary to adjust samples to be representative of a population by weighting them as is common in opinion polling. Stratification requires knowledge of the relative sizes of different population strata which can be derived from census enumerations. In some countries, the census provides the official counts used to apportion the number of elected representatives to regions.
In many cases, a chosen random sample can provide more accurate information than attempts to get a population census. A census is construed as the opposite of a sample as its intent is to count everyone in a population rather than a fraction. However, population censuses rely on a sampling frame to count the population; this is the only way to be sure that everyone has been included as otherwise those not responding would not be followed up on and individuals could be missed. The fundamental premise of a census is that the population is not known and a new estimate is to be made by the analysis of primary data; the use of a sampling frame is counterintuitive as it suggests that the population size is known. However, a census is used to collect attribute data on the individuals in the nation; this process of sampling marks the difference between historical census, a house to house process or the product of an imperial decree, the modern statistical project. The sampling frame used by census is always an address register.
Thus it is not known how many people there are in each household. Depending on the mode of enumeration, a form is sent to the householder, an enumerator calls, or administrative records for the dwelling are accessed; as a preliminary to the dispatch of forms, census workers will check any address problems on the ground. While it may seem straightforward to use the postal service file for this purpose, this can be out of date and some dwellings may contain a number of independent households. A particular problem is what are termed'communal establishments' which category includes student residences, religious orders, homes for the elderly, people in prisons etc; as these are not enumerated by a single householder, they are treated differently and visited by special teams of census workers to ensure they are classified appropriately. Individuals are counted within households and information is collected about the household structure and the housing. For this reason international documents refer to censuses of housing.
The census response is made by a household, indicating details of individuals resident there. An important aspect of census enumerations is determining which individuals can be counted from which cannot be counted. Broadly, three definitions can be used: de facto residence; this is important to consider individuals who have temporary addresses. Every person should be identified uniquely as resident in one place but where they happen to be on Census Day, their de facto residence, may not be the best place to count them. Where an individual uses services may be more useful and this is at their usual, or de jure, residence. An individual may be represented at a permanent address a family home for students or long term migrants, it is necessary to have a precise definition of residence to decide whether visitors to a country should be included in the population count. This is becoming more important as students travel abroad for education for a period of several years. Other groups causing problems of enumeration are new born babies, people away on holiday, people moving home around census day, people without a fixed address.
People having second homes because of working in another part of the country or retaining a holiday cottage are dif
European Americans
European Americans are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in America as well as people who are descended from more recent European arrivals. European Americans are the largest panethnic group in the United States, both and at present; the Spaniards are thought to be the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the contiguous United States, with Martín de Argüelles in St. Augustine a part of Spanish Florida. Virginia Dare, born August 18, 1587, was the first English child to be born in the Americas, she was born in Roanoke Colony, located in present-day North Carolina, the first attempt, made by Queen Elizabeth I, to establish a permanent English settlement in North America. In the 2016 American Community Survey, German Americans, Irish Americans, English Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans were the five largest self-reported European ancestry groups in the United States forming over a third of the total population.
However, the English Americans and British Americans demography is considered by some to be under-counted, as the people in that demographic tend to identify themselves as Americans. In the 2000 census over 56 million or 19.9% of the United States population ignored the ancestry question and classified as "unspecified" and "not reported". In 1995, as part of a review of the Office of Management and Budget's Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, a survey was conducted of census recipients to determine their preferred terminology for the racial/ethnic groups defined in the Directive. For the White group, European American came third, preferred by 2.35% of panel interviewees. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with Caucasian American, White American, Anglo American in many places around the United States. However, the terms Caucasian and White are purely racial terms, not geographic, include some populations whose origin is outside of Europe; the term is used by some to emphasize the European cultural and geographical ancestral origins of Americans, in the same way as is done for African Americans and Asian Americans.
A European American awareness is still notable because 90% of the respondents classified as white in the U. S. Census knew their European ancestry; the concept of an American originated in the United States as a person of European ancestry, thus excluding African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans. As a linguistic concern, the term is sometimes meant to discourage a dichotomous view of the racial landscape between the white category and everyone else. Margo Adair suggests that the recognition of specific European American ancestries allows certain Americans to become aware that they come from a variety of different cultures. Since 1607, some 57 million immigrants have come to the United States from other lands. 10 million passed through on their way to some other place or returned to their original homelands, leaving a net gain of some 47 million people. Between 1607 and 1776 most European settlements were British. Colonial stock of English, Scotch-Irish, Cornish or Welsh descent, may be found throughout the country but is dominant in New England and the South.
Some people of colonial stock in the Mid-Atlantic states, are of Dutch and Flemish descent. The vast majority of these are Protestants; the Pennsylvania Dutch population gave the state of Pennsylvania a high German cultural character. French descent, which can be found throughout the country, is most concentrated in Louisiana, while Spanish descent is dominant in the Southwest and Florida; these are Roman Catholic and were assimilated with the Louisiana Purchase and the aftermath of the Mexican–American War and Adams–Onís Treaty, respectively. The first large wave of European migration after the Revolutionary War came from Northern and Central-Western Europe between about 1820 and 1890. Most of these immigrants were from Ireland, Sweden and Britain, with large numbers of Irish and German Catholics immigrating, Roman Catholicism became an important minority religion. Polish Americans used to come as German or Austrian citizens, since Poland lost its independence in the period between 1772 and 1795.
Descendants of the first wave are dominant in the Midwest and West, although German descent is common in Pennsylvania, Irish descent is common in urban centers in the Northeast. The Irish and Germans held onto their ethnic identity throughout the 19th and early half of the 20th centuries, as well as other European ethnic groups. Most people of Polish origin live in the Midwest; the second wave of European Americans arrived from the mid-1890s to the 1920s from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Ireland. This wave included Irish, Greeks, Portuguese, Ukrainians, Russians and other Slavs. With large numbers of immigrants from Spain, Spanish Caribbean, South and Central America, White Hispanics have increased to 8% of the US population, Texas, New York, Florida are important centers for them. Before 1881, the vast majority of immigrants 86% of the total, arrived from northwest Europe, principally Great Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia; the years between 1881 and 1893 the pattern shifted, in the
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, defined by the federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most identify, indicate whether or not they are of Hispanic or Latino origin. The racial categories represent a social-political construct for the race or races that respondents consider themselves to be and, "generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country." OMB defines the concept of race as outlined for the US Census as not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference." The race categories include both national-origin groups. Race and ethnicity are considered separate and distinct identities, with Hispanic or Latino origin asked as a separate question. Thus, in addition to their race or races, all respondents are categorized by membership in one of two ethnic categories, which are "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino".
However, the practice of separating "race" and "ethnicity" as different categories has been criticized both by the American Anthropological Association and members of US Commission on Civil Rights. In 1997, OMB issued a Federal Register notice regarding revisions to the standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity. OMB developed race and ethnic standards in order to provide "consistent data on race and ethnicity throughout the Federal Government; the development of the data standards stem in large measure from new responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws." Among the changes, OMB issued the instruction to "mark one or more races" after noting evidence of increasing numbers of interracial children and wanting to capture the diversity in a measurable way and having received requests by people who wanted to be able to acknowledge their or their children's full ancestry rather than identifying with only one group. Prior to this decision, the Census and other government data collections asked people to report only one race.
The OMB states, "many federal programs are put into effect based on the race data obtained from the decennial census. Race data are critical for the basic research behind many policy decisions. States require these data to meet legislative redistricting requirements; the data are needed to monitor compliance with the Voting Rights Act by local jurisdictions". "Data on ethnic groups are important for putting into effect a number of federal statutes. Data on Ethnic Groups are needed by local governments to run programs and meet legislative requirements." The 1790 United States Census was the first census in the history of the United States. The population of the United States was recorded as 3,929,214 as of Census Day, August 2, 1790, as mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution and applicable laws."The law required that every household be visited, that completed census schedules be posted in'two of the most public places within, there to remain for the inspection of all concerned...' and that'the aggregate amount of each description of persons' for every district be transmitted to the president."
This law along with U. S. marshals were responsible for governing the census. One third of the original census data has been lost or destroyed since documentation; the data was lost in 1790–1830 time period and included data from: Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia. Census data included the name of the head of the family and categorized inhabitants as follows: free white males at least 16 years of age, free white males under 16 years of age, free white females, all other free persons, slaves. Thomas Jefferson the Secretary of State, directed marshals to collect data from all thirteen states, from the Southwest Territory; the census was not conducted in Vermont until 1791, after that state's admission to the Union as the 14th state on March 4 of that year. There was some doubt surrounding the numbers, President George Washington and Thomas Jefferson maintained the population was undercounted; the potential reasons Washington and Jefferson may have thought this could be refusal to participate, poor public transportation and roads, spread out population, restraints of current technology.
No microdata from the 1790 population census is available, but aggregate data for small areas and their compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System. In 1800 and 1810, the age question regarding free white males was more detailed; the 1820
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