According to the U.S. Census bureau, in 1940 every household was asked 34 questions. However, in 1950 they were asked just 20 questions. In reviewing the questions between the two, let's go through the questions and see what we will learn .
Questions Asked on the 1950 U.S. Federal Census Questionnaire
The following questions were asked of everyone in the household.
1. Name of street, avenue or road where the household is located
2. Home or apartment number
3. Serial number of dwelling unit
4. Is this house on a farm (or ranch)?
5. If no, is this house on a place of three or more acres? (New question for 1950 thanks to the expansion of suburbia.)
6. Corresponding agriculture questionnaire number
7. Name
8. Relationship to head
9. Race Census takers were instructed to assume that all members of the related household were the same race. For unrelated people they were to ask. And if you see a description you are unfamiliar with, consult the 1950 census enumerator instructions.)
10. Sex
11. How old was this person on his last birthday? It was expected that there would be some folks who either didn’t know their exact age or didn’t care to share it. Census takers were instructed to try to zero in and get as accurate as possible. If age wasn’t known, they were instructed to enter an estimate as the very last resort, and footnote that it was an estimate.
12. Is this person now married, widowed, divorced, separated, or never married? Marriage codes found in this column: MAR = married; WD = widowed; D = divorced; SEP = separated; NEV = never married. People under the age of 14 were automatically labeled as never married. Also, common-law marriages were reported as Married, so while marital status can be an indicator to look for marriage records, it is possible that there may not be any.
13. What State or country was the person born in? This is important to keep in mind when hunting for birth certificates.
14. If foreign born, is the person naturalized? yes or no. But if you see “AP” it means the person was born of American parents abroad or at sea. Also, if born at sea they were an American citizen if their father was, or if they were born after 5/24/1934 and either parent was American.
Before we get to the last six questions which were asked only of people 14 years of age and older, let’s take a look at the questions you might have expected to see that were asked in the previous 1940 census but were not.
The last 6 questions were asked of people over the age of 14.
15. What was this person doing most of last week – working, keeping house, or something else? WK = working; H = keeping house; U = unable to work; OT = other
16. If the person was “keeping house” or “something else” in question 15, did the person do any work at all last week, not counting work around the house? (work-for-pay, working on a farm or unpaid family work)
17. If the person answered “no” to question 16, was he looking for work?
18. If the person answered “no” to question 17, even if he didn’t work last week, does he have a job or business?
19. If the person was working, how many hours did he or she work in the last week?
20. What kind of work does the person do? What kind of business or industry is the person in?
Class of worker the person is. Enumerators were to mark “P” for private employment, “G” for government employment, “O” for own business, or “NP” for working without pay Here’s an example of an entry you might see for someone’s employment: Banker, Salesman, P. Armed forces was used for all types of military service.
