This publication provides census questionnaires and instructions for decennial censuses beginning in 1790 and ending in 2000. It also presents a history of the decennial censuses from 1790 to 2000 and offers individual histories of the U.S. census from the first (1790) to the sixteenth (1940). The publication discusses the seventeenth (1950), eighteenth (1960), nineteenth (1970), twentieth (1980), twenty-first (1990), and twenty-second (2000) censuses in more detail by examining the procedures to improve coverage, use of sampling, field enumeration, publicity, and Census 2000 advertising campaign. Three appendixes contain: (1) "U.S. Population and Census Cost"; (2) "National Archives and Records Administration Headquarters and Regional Branches"; and (3) "Availability of Records for the Eleventh Census of the United States." (Contains 34 references.) (BT)