WASHINGTON/
PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Profile America ? Tuesday, June 14th. On this date 65 years ago, it can be assumed that computer technicians and engineers at the Census Bureau were a bit nervous at the start of the workday. The first commercial computer, the 13-ton UNIVAC I, was about to begin its 12 year ? or 73,000-hour ? career of number crunching for the bureau. The successful start-up was used to process data from the 1950 Census of Population and was among the most important milestones leading to the modern digital revolution. Now, more than 85 percent of America's approximately 116 million households have computers, and about 64 percent have hand-held computing devices. Whether desktop or hand-held, 80 percent of U.S. households use the internet. Computer manufacturing in the U.S. grosses nearly $8.2 billion per year. Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sources:
Census computer: www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/technology/univac_i.html
UNIVAC service and dimensions/accessed 4/8/2016: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=973
Households: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
Household computers and Internet: https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2016/comm/digital_nation.html
Handheld devices/page 2: http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-28.pdf
Computer manufacturing value of shipments/NAICS 334111: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ASM/2014/31VS101//prodsvc~334111
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at <http://www.census.gov> (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau