In a message dated 2/12/99 11:14:45 PM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: << Have any of the genealogical societies discussed the impact on future generations if the US government uses statistical sampling for the 2000 census rather than the forms we filled out in 1990? Or am I misunderstanding something? >> I believe that the courts have ruled that, for the federal census, an ACTUAL COUNT be performed. The purpose of statistical sampling is to catch the traditionally undercounted portions of the population: minority groups, the poor and the undocumented. [The population numbers are used for the reapportionment of election districts and apportionment of tax revenues. The political and economic implications of statistical sampling should be clear. However, the effects of statistical sampling in lieu of an actual count on future genealogists and historians should be equally clear -- a valuable source of information would disappear. Diane