Administered by the United Census Bureau at five-year intervals since 1957, the Census of Governments is one of the most important sources of information about the varied types of governmental units across the entire country. Released in December 2002, this 105-page document contains the official counts of the number of state and local governments, along with tabulations of governments by state, type of government, size, and county location. Persons hoping to utilize data contained within the report will want to read the introduction to the report first, as it offers information about the nature of the tables and where to look for specific details, such as where to find data on public school systems, special district governments, and general-purpose governments. Those persons looking to document the change in the number of governmental units over the past five decades will want to look at the tables detailing the change in local governments by state from 1952 to 2002. Overall, this is an important resource for those individuals in the field of public policy or government.