Massachusetts. Census Division

The Census Division (or Division of the Census) was first mentioned as a unit within the state secretary's office in 1919, after St 1919, c 350, s 25 authorized the secretary of the Commonwealth to appoint a supervisor of the decennial census, responsible for collecting, compiling, and publishing census results. The agency name was not consistently used until the mid-1950s, however.

But long before 1919 the state secretary had been involved in census-taking activities. In 1837 the General Court authorized two censuses, in both cases stipulating the secretary's involvement: a population census to be used for allocating federal funds to towns in the wake of the dissolution of the United States Bank (St 1837, c 85); and a decennial census of "ratable polls" to be used for apportioning membership in the House of Representatives (St 1837, c 128) as required by Amendment Article 12 of the state constitution, ratified that same year. (Prior to 1837, censuses in Massachusetts, with few exceptions, were limited to the U.S. decennial censuses that commenced in 1790 under federal constitutional provision.) Thus was established the pattern for census taking in Massachusetts. Under the general guidelines of the Constitution's amending articles, each census, with a few exceptions, was authorized by an enabling act that further defined its scope. Censuses were loosely supervised by the state secretary, who was responsible for providing city and town officials with blank forms, for collecting returns, and for tabulating results. Enumeration itself was carried out by city and town officials.

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