Applied Gerontology and the 1980 Census

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Abstract
American applied gerontologists should be familiar with the U.S. Census. The specific and only official reason for the existence of this data set is its applications to planning. The Census Bureau publishes its data in several forms. It prints tabulations for geographical units in basic reports, in special subject reports, and on summary tapes. The Bureau also provides a sample of individual census records on computer tape for use by researchers outside the Bureau. In this article each census data source is reviewed with the applied gerontologist in mind. The author urges advocacy for a special data product that is in jeop ardy—the special subject report on the elderly in the United States—and relates a sad story with a happy ending about the Elderly Public Use Sample proposed by the National Institute on Aging.