Title:	The Washington State Census Board and Its Demographic Legacy
Authors:	David A. Swanson
Keywords:	Demographic Legacy
Issue Date:	2016
Publisher:	Springer
Description:	This book—which is not designed to deal with any of these things—in fact deals with them all—indirectly, but effectively. Its topic is very simple: How do we keep track of how many of us are there. How do we count Americans, or Californians, or Seattleites or the size of next year’s freshman class that our high school has to be ready for. If you have never thought about this, do not beat yourself up. You have other problems: the mortgage, the kids, your aging parents, the boss, and your life. But fortunately, there are people who do take care of that for you … for us. They are the bureaucrats that we often casually disdain. No, not loafers who spend their time leaning on the “shovels” of their work. They are experts in a narrow, specialized field. They hold doctorates, have wide experience in their field, and provide every level of government with population information that is essential if we are to make good decisions on a myriad of important areas. Who knew? In this short book, we can trace how population figures were gathered, compared, and projected at a time when the hand calculator was the technological cutting edge. We learn how the process was refined and improved as technology permitted. We see how these “bureaucrats” innovated and developed whole new methods of obtaining and, more importantly, utilizing the population information. This is a book that everybody can learn from. If you are a layman like me, do not try to decipher the complexities. (There are mathematical formulas for which my computer does not even have keys.) They are just a tiny part of the book and are there, so experts can benefit from it as well. And if you are an expert in the math field, you may learn something new about its history, about how your profession got to be what it is, and how information spread and new approaches were adopted.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/54280
ISBN:	978-3-319-25948-2
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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