National Processing Center (NPC)

Programs and Surveys

The National Processing Center conducts data collection and processing for many household demographic and economic surveys and censuses taken by the Census Bureau. Other Federal agencies sponsor most of these surveys. Information from these surveys and censuses is used to measure income, poverty, education, health, consumer expenditures, housing, crime victimization, and scores of other subjects that are vital to understanding the people of the United States, changes in demographic characteristics, and the emergence of new trends and patterns. The results from two of these surveys yield two of the most closely tracked economic indicators. The data collected in the Current Population Survey produce the monthly unemployment rate.