The Director of the Census Bureau is the chief administrator of the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

. The director is appointed by the President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 and confirmed

Advice and consent

Advice and consent is an English phrase frequently used in enacting formulae of bills and in other legal or constitutional contexts, describing a situation in which the executive branch of a government enacts something previously approved of by the legislative branch.-General:The expression is...

 by the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

. The Director is assisted by the Deputy Director of the United States Census Bureau.

History of the office

The nominal head of the early censuses was the Secretary of State, but management responsibility was actually devolved to the U.S. marshal in each state. These marshals collected and tabulated their own returns; the Secretary of State only oversaw the final compilation and tabulation of the data.

By 1840, the increasing standardization of census questionnaires and the enumeration process made it clear that more leadership at the federal level was necessary. Secretary of State John Forsyth

John Forsyth

John Forsyth may refer to:* John Forsyth , American politician* John Forsyth, Jr. , American newspaper editor and son of the namesake politician* John Forsyth , Australian major general...

 appointed William Augustus Weaver as the first "superintending clerk of the census" in that year. Weaver and his successors oversaw the technical aspects of the census, including designing questionnaires, and more closely managed the tabulation process.

By 1870, the leader of the Census Office was the "superintendent of the census." The superintendent oversaw the entire census-taking process, and usually held the position from a year before the census until the final tabulations had been published.

After the Census Office became a permanent agency in 1902, the first director was the incumbent superintendent, William Rush Merriam

William Rush Merriam

William Rush "Spooky" Merriam was an American politician. The son of Minnesota House Speaker John L. Merriam, he served in the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1883 and 1887 and was the Speaker of the House in 1887. He served as the 11th Governor of Minnesota from January 9, 1889 to January...

. He set the standard for many directors of the U.S. Census Bureau over the next hundred years by focusing on external issues such as congressional testimony and leaving technical operations to the experts.

Chronology of Census Bureau leadership

The following is a chronological list of those who supervised the Census of the United States.

Secretaries of State

The Secretary of State was the nominal director of the first five censuses, responsible for supervision and compilation of each U.S. marshal's tabulation. In reality, these cabinet officers did very little actual directing. The authorizing legislation for most early censuses was very specific, and the marshals oversaw the actual enumeration process.

Order	Name	Term
1	Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...	1790
2	John Marshall John Marshall John Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches...	1800
3	Robert Smith	1810
4	John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...	1820
5	Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....	1830

Superintending Clerks of the Census

Beginning in 1840 and continuing for the succeeding three censuses, operations and oversight were directed by a superintending clerk of the census. Also, the Census Office shut down after it finished publishing the results of each census. Because of this, there were several periods in the nineteenth century in which there was no director.

Order	Name	Term
1	William Augustus Weaver	1840
2	Joseph Camp Griffith Kennedy	1850–1853
3	James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow was an American publisher and statistician, best known for his influential magazine DeBow's Review, who also served as head of the U.S...	1853–1855
4	Joseph Camp Griffith Kennedy	1860–1865

Superintendents of the Census

Order	Name	Term
1	Francis Amasa Walker Francis Amasa Walker Francis Amasa Walker was an American economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator, and military officer in the Union Army. Walker was born into a prominent Boston family, the son of the economist and politician Amasa Walker, and he graduated from Amherst College at the age...	1870
2	Francis Amasa Walker Francis Amasa Walker Francis Amasa Walker was an American economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator, and military officer in the Union Army. Walker was born into a prominent Boston family, the son of the economist and politician Amasa Walker, and he graduated from Amherst College at the age...	1879-1881
3	Charles W. Seaton	1881–1885
4	Robert Percival Porter	1889–1893
5	Carroll D. Wright Carroll D. Wright Carroll Davidson Wright was an American statistician.Wright was born at Dunbarton, New Hampshire. He began to study law in 1860, but in 1862 enlisted as a private in the 14th New Hampshire Volunteer Regiment to fight the American Civil War...	1893–1897
6	William Rush Merriam William Rush Merriam William Rush "Spooky" Merriam was an American politician. The son of Minnesota House Speaker John L. Merriam, he served in the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1883 and 1887 and was the Speaker of the House in 1887. He served as the 11th Governor of Minnesota from January 9, 1889 to January...	1899–1902

Directors of the Census Bureau

The Census Bureau became a permanent agency in 1902.

Order	Name	Term
1	William Rush Merriam William Rush Merriam William Rush "Spooky" Merriam was an American politician. The son of Minnesota House Speaker John L. Merriam, he served in the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1883 and 1887 and was the Speaker of the House in 1887. He served as the 11th Governor of Minnesota from January 9, 1889 to January...	1902–1903
2	Simon Newton Dexter North	1903–1909
3	Edward Dana Durand	1909–1913
4	William J. Harris William J. Harris William Julius Harris was a United States Senator from the state of Georgia. He was a great-grandson of Charles Hooks, who had been a Representative from North Carolina, and son-in-law of Joseph Wheeler, Confederate General and Representative from Alabama.- Early life :Harris was born in Cedartown...	1913–1915
5	Samuel Lyle Rogers	1915–1921
6	William Mott Steuart	1921–1933
7	William Lane Austin	1933–1941
8	James Clyde Capt	1941–1949
9	Roy Victor Peel	1950–1953
10	Robert Wilbur Burgess	1953–1961
11	Richard M. Scammon Richard M. Scammon Richard M. Scammon was an author, political scientist and elections scholar. He served as Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census from 1961 to 1965. Afterwards, he worked for decades directing election analysis for NBC News....	1961–1965
12	A. Ross Eckler A. Ross Eckler Albert Ross Eckler served as Deputy Director of the United States Census Bureau from 1949 to 1965, and its Director from 1965 until 1969. He was the first career employee ever to become director of the agency....	1965–1969
13	George Hay Brown	1969–1973
14	Vincent Barabba Vincent Barabba -Biography:Vincent Barabba was born in Chicago, Ill on September 6, 1934. He was awarded a bachelor's degree in marketing from California State University at Northridge, CA and, in 1964, an M.B.A. in marketing from the University of California at Los Angeles...	1973–1976
15	Manuel D. Plotkin	1977–1979
	Vincent Barabba Vincent Barabba -Biography:Vincent Barabba was born in Chicago, Ill on September 6, 1934. He was awarded a bachelor's degree in marketing from California State University at Northridge, CA and, in 1964, an M.B.A. in marketing from the University of California at Los Angeles...	1979–1981
16	Bruce Chapman Bruce Chapman Bruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...	1981–1983
17	John G. Keane	1984–1987
18	Barbara Everitt Bryant	1989–1993
19	Martha Farnsworth Riche	1994–1998
20	Kenneth Prewitt	1998–2001
21	Charles Louis Kincannon Charles Louis Kincannon Charles Louis Kincannon is a former director of the United States Census Bureau. Kincannon took office on March 13, 2002 after being nominated by George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously by the Senate, and served until he retired on January 3, 2008.Kincannon started working for the Census Bureau...	2002–2008
22	Steve H. Murdock	2008–2009
23	Robert M. Groves Robert Groves (academic) Robert Martin Groves is the Director of the United States Census Bureau, a sociologist, and research professor in survey methodology at both the University of Michigan and University of Maryland, College Park...	2009–present