A Brief History of Citizenship Questions in the US Census

Lots of commentary and opinion has been thrown around regarding the Trump administration's decision to include a question on citizenship in the next census. Lots of people have weighed in on it, and made statements both accurate and inaccurate, but I haven't seen any one of them yet say anything about what's been asked in previous censuses.

I'm going to do that here.

But first, Why does the United States take a census anyway?

Taking of a census is mandated by the United States Constitution, Article I, section 2:

    "The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."

What's the data used for?

To determine the representation of each state in the House of Representatives.

The 14th amendment to the Constitution accomplishes several things: It established the basis for citizenship in the United States (section 1), and how representation in the House of Representatives was to be accomplished (section 2). The second section also also gave to freed slaves full recognition in the enumeration rather than the 3/5ths granted under the Constitution.

The topic of giving 3/5ths representation to a group of people who weren't represented won't be addressed here.

So the ultimate question here is, Do elected officials only represent citizens?
Ideally, no. And if persons who are not naturalized citizens are not enumerated, they, as a group, stand a significant chance of not being adequately represented.

This possibility may have the most impact in California, which could loose seats if some immigrants chose not to respond to the census.

Marco Rubio's comment,

"Districts apportioned based on # of people not here legally dilutes the political representation of citizens & legal residents"

(https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/978942844646973440) technically is true, but I don't think all the protections in the Constitution have been ruled inapplicable to persons who are not citizens of the United States.

The table below shows how each the decennial census since 1850 has addressed questions of birth and citizenship.  You will see, asking for this information isn't a new thing. The questions have been asked in different ways, and have asked for different information, but it's not a new thing the Trump Administration thought up on it's own. 

Sorry about the wacky spacing between the text and the table, I don't seem to be able to change it.

 The ellipsis in some of the columns indicates there's more text to the question. If you want to see the forms for yourself, go to the Census Bureau's site to download the questionnaires.

Year	Birth	Question 1	Question 2	Question 3
1850	Place of birth ….
1860	Place of birth ….
1870	Place of birth ….
1880	Place of birth of this person ….
1890	Place of birth	Number of years in the United States	Whether naturalized	Whether naturalization papers have been taken out
1900	Place of birth of this person	Year of immigration to the United States	Number of years in the United States	Naturalization
1910	Place of birth of this person	Year of immigration to the United States	Whether naturalized or alien
1920	Place of birth	Year of immigration to the United States	Naturalized or alien	If naturalized, year of naturalization
1930	Place of birth	Year of immigration to the United States	Naturalization	Whether able to speak English
1940	Place of birth	Citizenship of foreign born
1950	What state (or foreign county) was he born in	If foreign born is he naturalized?
1960	Where was this person born?
1970	Where was this person born?	Is this person naturalized?	When did he come to the United States to stay?
1980	In what State or foreign country was this person born?	Is this person a naturalized citizen of the United States?	When did this person come to the United States to stay?	What is this person's ancestry?
1990	In what U.S. State or foreign country was this person born?	Is this person a CITIZEN of the United States?	When did this person come to the United States?	What is this person's ancestry or ethnic origin?
2000	Where was this person born?	Is this person a CITIZEN of the United States?	When did this person come to live in the United States?	What is this person's ancestry or ethnic origin?
2010	No questions about birthplace or citizenship were asked