Indeed, since the availability of computer-readable data files beginning with the 1970 census, there has been an explosion in the use of census data by a wide range of users for a variety of purposes. Within the U.S. statistical framework, the census serves important functions. As for state and local governments, they use this information to identify those in need of particular services, and to allocate facilities and resources to serve people most effectively. Census statistics are crucial to the private sector as well. Business organizations, universities and other research arms, the nonprofit world, the media, academia and individual citizens find data vital, often when combined with data from their own research.
Corporations make important decisions on marketing and sales based on population statistics.
Research organizations use census data to advance knowledge that may frequently have policy implications, such as to track educational advancement to calculate better the degree of need for adult literacy programs. Ultimately, the United States could not function properly and effectively without the decennial census. This has been true for the past two centuries, and it will, no doubt, be equally true in the coming millennium.