The developing program on social indicators at the U.S. Bureau of the Census

The Bureau of the Census Fiscal Year 1978 Budget provides funds for the first time for beginning a modest but coordinated effort in the field of social indicators and associated activities. The Bureau, buttressed by the advice and participation of other Government agencies, organizations and individuals outside of the Federal establishment long interested in social indicators, intends to:

1. consolidate and extend the development of the concepts and principles advanced previously relating to social indicators;
2. continue and expand the efforts and communication network established at the Office of Management and Budget, in connection with the preparation of the Social Indicators 1973 and 1976 reports;
3. systematically identify and assemble information sets and bits that are contained in censuses and surveys, household and establishment universes, administrative records, studies and projects capable of contributing to social indicator and social accounting development;
4. establish the basic analytic framework and an orderly set of detailed interrelated social accounts capable of being aggregated or disaggregated to appropriate levels of abstraction; and
5. prepare research and analytic studies and make available information generated from the social indicator and social accounting efforts at the Bureau, subject to limitations associated with confidentiality and copyright provisions pertaining to private sources of information.

The organizational structure to carry out this program consists of four primary work centers: information, social indicators, social accounts, and special studies. The structure is designed to provide for continuity of purpose, improve chances for individual achievement and group benefit, and to generate products that will contribute to a more accurate understanding of life experiences in the context of the interplay of social and economic forces and political and juridical institutions.