America at 250: What the Census reveals about our journey
Marcia Straub/Getty Images
June 29, 2026 05:38 PM ET
As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, the Census Bureau offers a vivid way to trace the country’s growth, movement and change from the earliest days of the republic.
On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday, a milestone that belongs to all 342 million of us. But one of the more interesting ways to think about that anniversary is through the federal institution that has spent almost the entire life of the republic trying to count, describe and understand who “we” actually are. The Census Bureau’s new Freedom 250 Project frames the semi-quincentennial as a chance to look back at 250 years of “measuring America’s journey,” which is a pretty good way to describe what the agency has been doing almost from the start.
The decennial census itself is nearly as old...
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