As the nation's economy has grown, the scope of what is now called the Economic Census expanded to include retail and wholesale trade, construction industries, mining, and a broad array of services.
Then, in October 1953, the United States Secretary of Commerce appointed Dr. Ralph J. Watkins, then Director of Research for Dun and Bradstreet, to form an Intensive Review Committee to study the issue.
Its series of testimonials from the business, financial, professional, and governmental groups represented on the Committee led to the reinstatement of the Economic Census for 1954.
The census provided comparable statistics across economic sectors, using consistent time periods, concepts, definitions, classification and reporting units.
[2] The final major expansion of the Economic Census took place in 1992, adding more transportation industries, plus finance, insurance, real estate, communications, and utilities, a group accounting for more than 20 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
Developed cooperatively by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, NAICS replaced the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system to provide greater comparability with international statistics.
Now titled the Survey of Business Owners, this program presents statistics according to the federal standard that allows respondents to report more than one race.
[2] In 1954, the confidentiality provisions were incorporated into the law (Title 13 of the United States Code) that specifies the frequency and scope of the Economic Census.
The law also prescribes penalties for any disclosure by the Census Bureau, or for a respondent's false reporting or willful refusal where response is mandatory.
In 1962, the confidentiality rule for census questionnaires was extended by law to also make copies retained in respondents' files immune from legal process (13 U.S.C. § 9a).