In the United States, the Government makes 100% of the census returns available after a perio of 72 years. There are no exceptions to this policy. The government does NOT however, provide free online access, indexs of the census, etc. The government sells copies of the microfilm;. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of reels of this film for the 1930 census (the most current one available). If you have the money, you can purchase all of them. There is no restriction on copying them, and selling the copies to anyone you want. Private companies purchase thses films. They then post them on their web sites, at their expense. Why is is wrong for them to charge a fee for doing this? They provide their own index to the census, and they charge whatever they wish for that convienence and service. You can go to any National Archives office, and review all of those films for free. Many free sites provide local census films. The LDS Family History Libraries provide the films free if they are in the local library, and for a very minimal cost if you need to order them. Our nominal tax rates are significantly less than they are in Canada. So, our government does not provide the same things, in the same way, as Canada does. Our people, on the whole, would never stand for the tax rates up there. So, we don't expect the government to provide services that private companies can do. Different countries do things differently. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. We have many things in common with Canada, and many things are quite different. We give access to the census much sooner, but you have to work a little harder to see it. ===== Lynton (Bill) Stewart A former dual Canadian and U.S. Citizen, who's Canadian Citizenship was automatically stripped away without any notice.. My younger siblings get to resume their Canadian Citizenship, by merely filing a form, proving our father was Canadian and paying a small fee. I do not have that same right, because I was born before 1947.