Article 1, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution requires that every 10 years, what should happen?

The framers of the U.S. Constitution established a government where representation was tied directly to population. To ensure this system remained fair and accurate as the nation grew and changed, they built a specific mechanism into the country's founding document. Article 1, Section 2, therefore mandates an "actual Enumeration" of the entire population once every decade. This requirement guarantees that political power in the House of Representatives is periodically readjusted to reflect demographic shifts across the states.

This decennial population count is what we know today as the U.S. Census. Its primary constitutional purpose is to reapportion the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. States that have gained residents may gain congressional seats, while those with declining populations may lose them. The first such count was conducted in 1790, and it has been carried out every ten years since.

Beyond congressional apportionment, the data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau has a massive impact on daily life. It is used to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding to local communities for vital services like schools, hospitals, and infrastructure projects. This makes the census one of the most fundamental and impactful civic activities in the United States.