Familypedia
Register
Advertisement

The Sixteenth United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 population of 123,202,624 persons. The census date was April 1, 1940. A number of new questions were asked including where people were 5 years before, highest educational grade achieved, and information about wages. This census introduced sampling techniques; one in 20 people were asked additional questions on the census form. Other innovations included a field test of the census in 1939.

Census questions[]

The 1940 census collected the following information[1]:

  • address
  • home owned or rented
    • if owned, value
    • if rented, monthly rent
  • whether on a fyes this is true
  • name
  • relationship to head of household
  • sex
  • race
  • age
  • marital status
  • school attendance
  • educational attainment
  • birthplace
  • if foreign born, citizenship
  • location of residence five years ago and whether on a farm
  • employment status
  • if at work, whether in private or non-emergency government work, or in public emergency work (WPA, CCC, NYA, etc.)
    • if in private or non-emergency government work, hours worked in week
    • if seeking work or on public emergency work, duration of unemployment
  • occupation, industry and class of worker
  • weeks worked last year
  • wage and salary income last year

In addition, a sample of individuals were asked additional questions covering age at first marriage, fertility, and other topics. Full documentation on the 1940 census, including census forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.

Data availability[]

Microdata from the 1940 census are freely available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System.

Because of confidentiality concerns, access to personally identifiable information from census records is limited or restricted by Title 13 of the U.S. Code.[2]

On April 2, 2012 [3] the detailed data available from the United States Census of 1940 enumeration sheets will be released to the public by the National Archives and Records Administration.[4][5]

State rankings[]

1940 U.S. State Population Rankings
Rank State Population
1 New York 13,479,142
2 Pennsylvania 9,900,180
3 Illinois 7,897,241
4 Ohio 6,907,612
5 California 6,907,387
6 Texas 6,414,824
7 Michigan 5,256,106
8 Massachusetts 4,316,721
9 New Jersey 4,160,165
10 Missouri 3,784,664
11 North Carolina 3,571,623
12 Indiana 3,427,796
13 Wisconsin 3,137,587
14 Georgia 3,123,723
15 Tennessee 2,915,841
16 Kentucky 2,845,627
17 Alabama 2,832,961
18 Minnesota 2,792,300
19 Virginia 2,677,773
20 Iowa 2,538,268
21 Louisiana 2,363,880
22 Oklahoma 2,336,434
23 Mississippi 2,183,796
24 West Virginia 1,961,974
25 Arkansas 1,949,387
26 South Carolina 1,899,804
27 Florida 1,897,414
28 Maryland 1,821,244
29 Kansas 1,801,028
30 Washington 1,736,191
31 Connecticut 1,709,242
32 Nebraska 1,315,834
33 Colorado 1,123,296
34 Oregon 1,089,684
35 Maine 847,226
36 Rhode Island 713,346
x District of Columbia 663,091
37 South Dakota 642,961
38 North Dakota 641,935
39 Montana 559,456
40 Utah 550,310
41 New Mexico 531,818
42 Idaho 524,873
43 Arizona 499,261
44 New Hampshire 491,524
45 Vermont 359,231
46 Delaware 266,505
47 Wyoming 250,742
48 Nevada 110,247

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Library Bibliography Bulletin 88, New York State Census Records, 1790-1925". New York State Library. October 1981. p. 45 (p. 51 of PDF). http://purl.org/net/nysl/nysdocs/9643270. 
  2. ^ "Historical Background". US Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/mso/www/bkgrnd.htm. Retrieved July 2, 2009. 
  3. ^ "1940 Census". http://www.1930census.com/1940_census.php. 
  4. ^ Weinstein, Allen (April 2008). "Access to genealogy data at NARA grows" (PDF). NARA Staff Bulletin. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.archives.gov/about/speeches/staff-bulletin/2008-bulletin/nara-staff-bulletin-archivist-column-april08.pdf. Retrieved July 2, 2009. 
  5. ^ Weinstein, Allen (Summer 2008). "Finding Out Who You Are: First Stop, National Archives". Prologue magazine, vol. 40, no. 2. Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2008/summer/archivist.html. Retrieved July 2, 2009. 

External links[]



This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at 1940 United States Census. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
Advertisement