Census numbers can help your community work out public improvement strategies. These include creating plans to help solve traffic congestion, friends living alone who need assistance, and over crowded school.
Non-profit organizations and park districts also use census numbers in a multitude of ways to best serve the community’s needs across the nation.
2. Get Help in Times of Need.
Many 911 emergency systems are based on maps developed for the last census. Census information helps health providers predict the spread of disease through communities with children or older population. When floods, tornadoes or earthquakes hit, the census tells rescuers how many people will need their help.
When Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992, census information aided the rescue effort by providing estimates of the number of people in each block.
3. Make Government Work for You.
It’s a good way to tell our leaders who we are and what we need. The numbers are used to help determine the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal and state funds. We’re talking hospitals, highways, stadiums and school lunch programs.
Using census numbers to support their request for a new community center, senior citizens in one New England community successfully argued their case before county commissioners.
4. Reduce Risk for American Business.
Because census numbers help industry reduce financial risk and locate potential markets, businesses are able to produce the products you want.
“All the Basic Facts You Need to Know to Start a New Business, ” a publication of the Massachusetts Department of Commerce, shows small businesses how to use census numbers to determine the marketability of new products.
5. Help Yourself and Your Family.
Individual records are held confidential for 72 years, but you can request a certificate from past censuses that can be used as proof to establish your age, residence or relationship, information that could help you qualify for a pension, establish citizenship or obtain an inheritance. In 2072, your great-grandchildren may want to use census information to research family history. Right now, your children may be using census information to do their homework.
