Conducting the economic censuses

Conducting the economic censuses successfully requires systematic planning and cooperation among many Census Bureau organizational units in every stage of operation through the final publication of the results. While large companies complete industry-specific questionnaires about their operations, the censuses are conducted more efficiently, at less cost, and with less burden on the small business community by using data from administrative records of other Federal agencies. Due to major improvements in data processing techniques, the results of the latest censuses, which covered calendar year 1982, were released earlier than ever before. For 1987, the Census Bureau plans further improvements in its processing system, with the goal of still earlier release of data.