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 Bureau tended to be shorter, with fewer presentations or explanations of other approaches.

The 1880 census grouping of States into divisions and major sections therefore became the geographic summary units recognized for all subsequent censuses from 1890 through 1990. With some minor modifications, Census Bureau publications used them throughout the first several decades of this century to present information from the censuses of population, agriculture, and industry. The same set of areas also were used during the 1930s and 1940s for the new censuses of business, construction, housing, and services.

The nine divisions as presently constituted, except for Alaska and Hawaii, first appeared in the population report of the 1910 decennial census. In addition to divisions, the report contained information for the North, South, and West sections, as well as a separate summary by States east and west of the Mississippi River. The 1910 Census of Agriculture used a similar arrangement, as did the decennial census of 1920.

The 1930 population and agriculture census publications also used nine geographic divisions; however, the population census omitted summarizing data for the three sections, as well as the designation of areas as east and west of the Mississippi River. The agriculture census reports continued to use the three major sections, North, South, and West. The 1940 population and housing census reports revived these three areas; they also continued to present statistics for the nine divisions. The 1950 census publications presented summaries for the same nine geographic divisions in use since 1910. At a higher level, some slight modifications took place—the use of the name region instead of section, and the rearrangement of the four northern divisions that composed the North Section into the Northeast and North Central Regions, each consisting of two geographic divisions. The 1960 census saw the addition of Alaska and Hawaii to the Pacific Division; the 1970 and 1980 census publications brought no further changes. Except for the 1984 renaming of the North Statistical Groupings6-17