Website alows the public full access to the 1940 Census images, census maps and descriptions.

The 1940 Census population schedules were created by the Bureau of the Census in an attempt to enumerate every person living in the United States on April 1, 1940, although some persons were missed. The 1940 census population schedules were digitized by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and released publicly on April 2, 2012. The 1940 Census enumeration district maps contain maps of counties, cities, and other minor civil divisions that show enumeration districts, census tracts, and related boundaries and numbers used for each census. The coverage is nation wide and includes territorial areas. The 1940 Census enumeration district descriptions contain written descriptions of census districts, subdivisions, and enumeration districts.

Abstract

The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) Complete Count Data include more than 650 million individual-level and 7.5 million household-level records. The IPUMS microdata are the result of collaboration between IPUMS and the nation’s two largest genealogical organizations—Ancestry.com and FamilySearch—and provides the largest and richest source of individual level and household data.

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Historic data are scarce and often only exists in aggregate tables. The key advantage of historic US census data is the availability of individual and household level characteristics that researchers can tabulate in ways that benefits their specific research questions. The data contain demographic variables, economic variables, migration variables and family variables. Within households, it is possible to create relational data as all relations between household members are known. For example, having data on the mother and her children in a household enables researchers to calculate the mother’s age at birth. Another advantage of the Complete Count data is the possibility to follow individuals over time using a historical identifier.

In sum: the historic US census data are a unique source for research on social and economic change and can provide population health researchers with information about social and economic determinants.Historic data are scarce and often only exists in aggregate tables. The key advantage of historic US census data is the availability of individual and household level characteristics that researchers can tabulate in ways that benefits their specific research questions. The data contain demographic variables, economic variables, migration variables and family variables. Within households, it is possible to create relational data as all relations between household members are known. For example, having data on the mother and her children in a household enables researchers to calculate the mother’s age at birth. Another advantage of the Complete Count data is the possibility to follow individuals over time using a historical identifier. In sum: the historic US census data are a unique source for research on social and economic change and can provide population health researchers with information about social and economic determinants.

The historic US 1940 census data was collected in April 1940. Enumerators collected data traveling to households and counting the residents who regularly slept at the household. Individuals lacking permanent housing were counted as residents of the place where they were when the data was collected. Household members absent on the day of data collected were either listed to the household with the help of other household members or were scheduled for the last census subdivision.

Notes

• We provide IPUMS household and person data separately so that it is convenient to explore the descriptive statistics on each level. In order to obtain a full dataset, merge the household and person on the variables SERIAL and SERIALP. In order to create a longitudinal dataset, merge datasets on the variable HISTID.
• Households with more than 60 people in the original data were broken up for processing purposes. Every person in the large households are considered to be in their own household. The original large households can be identified using the variable SPLIT40, reconstructed using the variable SERIAL40, and the original count is found in the variable NUMPREC40.
• Some variables are missing from this data set for specific enumeration districts. The enumeration districts with missing data can be identified using the variable EDMISS. These variables will be added in a future release.
• Coded variables derived from string variables are still in progress. These variables include: occupation, industry and migration status.
• Missing observations have been allocated and some inconsistencies have been edited for the following variables: Missing observations have been allocated and some inconsistencies have been edited for the following variables: SURSIM, SEX, SCHOOL, RELATE, RACE, OCC1950, MTONGUE, MBPL, FBPL, BPL, MARST, EMPSTAT, CITIZEN, OWNERSHP. The flag variables indicating an allocated observation for the associated variables can be included in your extract by clicking the ‘Select data quality flags’ box on the extract summary page.
• Most inconsistent information was not edited for this release, thus there are observations outside of the universe for many variables. In particular, the variables GQ, and GQTYPE have known inconsistencies and will be improved with the next r

The 1940 Census Public Use Microdata Sample Project was assembled through a collaborative effort between the United States Bureau of the Census and the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin. The collection contains a stratified 1-percent sample of households, with separate records for each household, for each "sample line" respondent, and for each person in the household. These records were encoded from microfilm copies of original handwritten enumeration schedules from the 1940 Census of Population. Geographic identification of the location of the sampled households includes Census regions and divisions, states (except Alaska and Hawaii), standard metropolitan areas (SMAs), and state economic areas (SEAs). Accompanying the data collection is a codebook that includes an abstract, descriptions of sample design, processing procedures and file structure, a data dictionary (record layout), category code lists, and a glossary. Also included is a procedural history of the 1940 Census. Each of the 20 subsamples contains three record types: household, sample line, and person. Household variables describe the location and condition of the household. The sample line records contain variables describing demographic characteristics such as nativity, marital status, number of children, veteran status, wage deductions for Social Security, and occupation. Person records also contain variables describing demographic characteristics including nativity, marital status, family membership, education, employment status, income, and occupation.

Census Year 1940 Census Tracts. The dataset contains polygons representing CY 1940 census tracts, created as part of the D.C. Geographic Information System (DC GIS) for the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) and participating D.C. government agencies. Census tracts were identified from maps provided by the U.S. Census Bureau and the D.C. Office of Planning. The tract polygons were created by selecting street arcs from the WGIS planimetric street centerlines. Where necessary, polygons were also heads-up digitized from 1995/1999 orthophotographs.

This is the shapefile of the mapped 1940 census data for Austin, Texas.

This map depicts US Census data from the 1940 decennial census for total population and race

This dataset includes all individuals from the 1940 US census.

The Census Tree is the largest-ever database of record links among the historical U.S. censuses, with over 700 million links for people living in the United States between 1850 and 1940. These links allow researchers to construct a longitudinal dataset that is highly representative of the population, and that includes women, Black Americans, and other under-represented populations at unprecedented rates. Each .csv file consists of a crosswalk between the two years indicated in the filename, using the IPUMS histids. For more information, consult the included Read Me file, and visit https://censustree.org.

The 1940 Census Tract files were originally created by keypunching the data from the printed publications prepared by the Bureau of the Census. The work was done under the direction of Dr. Donald Bogue, whose wife, Elizabeth Mullen Bogue, completed much of the data work. Subsequently, the punchcards were converted to data files and transferred to the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA). ICPSR received copies of these files from NARA and converted the binary block length records to ASCII format.

This dataset includes all households from the 1940 US census.

This is the census data collected for Austin, Texas in 1940.

This dataset includes variable names, variable labels, variable values, and corresponding variable value labels for the IPUMS 1940 datasets.

This data collection is divided into two subset. For each municipality and town there is information about total population within the principal occupational groups agriculture and subsidiary industry, industry and craft, transport, storage, communication and commerce, public service and independent professions, domestic work, and unspecified occupation and also about total number of professionally employed. For towns with more than 10 000 inhabitants there is a subset including information about total population and number of professionally employed within the principal occupational groups and also within subgroups of these principal groups.

United States Department of Commerce.

The CenSoc WWII Army Enlistment Dataset is a cleaned and harmonized version of the National Archives and Records Administration’s Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (2002). It contains enlistment records for over 9 million men and women who served in the United States Army, including the Army Air Corps, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, and Enlisted Reserve Corps. We publish links between men in the CenSoc WWII Army Enlistment Dataset, Social Security Administration mortality data, and the 1940 Census. The CenSoc Enlistment-Census-1940 file links these enlistment records to the complete 1940 Census, and may be merged with IPUMS-USA census data using the HISTID identifier variable. The CenSoc Enlistment-Numident file links enlistment records to the Berkley Unified Numident Mortality Database (BUNMD), and the CenSoc Enlistment-DMF file links enlistment records to the Social Security Death Master File. For enlistment records in the Enlistment-Numident and Enlistment-DMF datasets that have been independently and additionally linked to the 1940 Census, we include the HISTID identifier variable that can be used to merge the data with IPUMS census data.

Abstract This article presents analyses by Giorgio Mortara on the information from the Brazilian population census carried out in 1940 referring specifically to illiteracy in the Federal District (Rio de Janeiro) and in the municipality of São Paulo. Mortara was born in Italy, where he graduated and established himself as a recognized statistician, and in 1939 moved to Brazil, where he significantly contributed to the constitution of the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) and to Brazilian demographic studies. Several of his studies are devoted to the analysis of results of the Brazilian census surveys and are widely cited and well known in the country. This article, however, focuses on some analyses elaborated by the author regarding illiteracy, which were published in the Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos in 1945 and are rarely mentioned in the literature on the subject. In these studies, the author identifies aspects and trends that had not yet become part of the analytical repertoire in the period. This is the case of the observation of more pronounced literacy in younger generations, the lower illiteracy rate trend among girls and the index differences regarding the color category.

1940 Ancestry Census Data for Baltimore, Maryland. Refer to the 1940 codebook (codebook_1940.pdf) for more information. This is part of a collection of 221 Baltimore Ecosystem Study metadata records that point to a geodatabase. The geodatabase is available online and is considerably large. Upon request, and under certain arrangements, it can be shipped on media, such as a usb hard drive. The geodatabase is roughly 51.4 Gb in size, consisting of 4,914 files in 160 folders. Although this metadata record and the others like it are not rich with attributes, it is nonetheless made available because the data that it represents could be indeed useful.

1940 Age Census Data for Baltimore, Maryland. Refer to the 1940 codebook (codebook_1940.pdf) for more information. This is part of a collection of 221 Baltimore Ecosystem Study metadata records that point to a geodatabase. The geodatabase is available online and is considerably large. Upon request, and under certain arrangements, it can be shipped on media, such as a usb hard drive. The geodatabase is roughly 51.4 Gb in size, consisting of 4,914 files in 160 folders. Although this metadata record and the others like it are not rich with attributes, it is nonetheless made available because the data that it represents could be indeed useful.

Census Blocks in Macon-Bibb County.

A census block is the smallest geographic unit used by the United States Census Bureau for tabulation of 100-percent data (data collected from all houses, rather than a sample of houses). The number of blocks in the United States, including Puerto Rico, for the 2010 Census was 11,155,486.[1]

Census blocks are grouped into block groups, which are grouped into census tracts. There are on average about 39 blocks per block group. Blocks typically have a four-digit number; the first number indicates which block group the block is in. For example, census block 3019 would be in block group 3.

Blocks are typically bounded by streets, roads or creeks. In cities, a census block may correspond to a city block, but in rural areas where there are fewer roads, blocks may be limited by other features. The population of a census block varies greatly. As of the 2010 census, there were 4,871,270 blocks with a reported population of zero,[2] while a block that is entirely occupied by an apartment complex might have several hundred inhabitants.

Census blocks covering the entire country were introduced with the 1990 census. Before that, back to the 1940 census, only selected areas were divided into blocks.

To review a table detailing Census Block information in the United States visit https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tallies/tractblock.