[00:00.00] Surveys,Surveys and More Surveys

[00:06.48]In the United States,

[00:10.55]there's a widespread belief that statistics don't lie.

[00:17.79]Perhaps that's why surveys are such an important part of American life.

[00:26.54]For many years,politicians,businesspeople,

[00:32.71]and scholars have used surveys to find out more about that mysterious

[00:41.35]and complicated creature,the human being.

[00:46.60]American newspapers and magazines have been taking

[00:53.05]public opinion polls since the 1800s.

[00:58.51]In the 1930s,poll experts such as Elmo Poper and George Gallup

[01:06.56]began using scientific methods

[01:11.52]to select and interview participants in political surveys.

[01:18.47]Since the 1940s,American businesspeople have been developing,

[01:25.92]naming,packaging,and promoting products with the help of surveys.

[01:33.78]And also since the 1940s,

[01:38.72]surveys have been a major research tool

[01:43.97]among scholars in the social sciences

[01:49.82]Psychologists and sociologists have asked people about everything

[01:57.58]from their religious beliefs to their sexual behavior.

[02:03.74]The mass media have frequently reported the results of these surveys,

[02:11.29]and the American public has always been quite interested in the responses.

[02:19.23]However,the most complete and most important survey

[02:25.29]for Americans is the national census.

[02:30.94]A census is official count of the number of people living in a city,

[02:39.09]state,or country.

[02:42.53]The idea of a census has existed for more than two thousand years.

[02:51.18]In ancient Rome,the government counted its citizens

[02:57.42]for purposes of taxation and military service.

[03:03.07]But the first modern census began here in the United States in 1790.

[03:11.90]In that year,the population of the new nation was 3 929 214.

[03:23.55]Since 1790,the American government has taken a census every ten years,

[03:32.11]and the population has been growing steadily every decade.

[03:38.57]The 1980 census reported a population of 226 504 825.

[03:51.11]In addition to statistics on the total population,

[03:57.06]the 1980 census has given us a great deal of information

[04:03.72]about recent changes in American life.

[04:09.36]One of the many important changes concerns where people live.

[04:16.42]American are still a mainly urban people with about 75 percent

[04:24.57]of the population living in or near large cities.

[04:31.33]But,sice 1970,the small communities have been gaining population

[04:38.39]at a faster rate than the cities or suburbs.

[04:44.73]Americans have been moving back to the small twons and the rural areas.

[04:52.49]This is a dramatic change from the trend in preceding decades.

[05:00.54]Americans have always done a great deal of moving

[05:06.18]from one part of the country to another,

[05:10.65]but,in recent years,the moves have been mostly to the Suth and West.

[05:18.09]States in the "Sun Belt"have been gaining population,

[05:24.44]and states in the Northeast and the Midwest have been losing population.

[05:32.49]Marriage and family life hav been changing,too.

[05:38.91]Americans have been marrying later,

[05:44.06]having fewer children,getting more divorces,

[05:49.41]and living more often as singles of as unmarried couples.

[05:56.15]The actual number of married couples has risen in recent years,

[06:04.12]but the percentage of married people has declined.

[06:10.57]Similarly,the number of actual births has gone up,

[06:17.21]but the size fo the average family has gone down.

[06:22.96]The average young wonam of today plants to have only two children.

[06:30.90]Along with many other surveys,the national census gives Americans

[06:38.73]a statistical picture of a changing society.

[06:45.37]It allows the government and the people to see

[06:51.22]what's happening and to adjust to the new picture.