The 1950 United States census, conducted by the

Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, determined the resident population of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to be 151,325,798, an increase of 14.5 percent over the 131,669,275 persons enumerated during the 1940 census. This was the first census in which: * More than one state recorded a population of over 10 million * Every state and territory recorded a population of over 100,000 * All 100 largest cities recorded populations of over 100,000 On April 1, 2022, the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

released scanned census enumeration sheets to the general public, in accordance with the 72 year rule. It is most recent census to have full public availability.

Census questions

The 1950 census collected the following information from all respondents: * address * whether house is on a farm * name * relationship to head of household * race * sex * age * marital status * birthplace * if foreign born, whether naturalized * employment status * hours worked in week * occupation, industry and class of worker In addition, a sample of individuals were asked additional questions covering income, marital history, fertility, and other topics. Full documentation on the 1950 census, including census forms and a procedural history, is available from the

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series IPUMS, originally the ''Integrated Public Use Microdata Series'', is the world's largest individual-level population database. IPUMS consists of microdata samples from United States ''(IPUMS-USA)'' and international ''(IPUMS-International)'' cens ...

Data availability

Microdata from the 1950 census are freely available through the

Aggregate data Aggregate data is high-level data which is acquired by combining individual-level data. For instance, the output of an industry is an aggregate of the firms’ individual outputs within that industry. Aggregate data are applied in statistics, d ...

for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, can be downloaded from the

National Historical Geographic Information System The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) is a historical GIS project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate United States Census, census information for the United States between Uni ...

. All identifiable information in the census became available in April 2022 upon the release of the images taken by the National Archives and Records Administration. On April 1, 2022, 72 years after the census was taken, the

released scanned census enumeration sheets to the general public. The census data was also made freely searchable by name on other websites. Genealogy companies

Ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

and

FamilySearch FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is part of the Church's Family History Department (FHD). The Fami ...

partnered to use AI and human volunteers to review an index of all names listed on the 1950 census forms.

State rankings

City rankings

Locations of 50 most populous cities

References

External links

Historic US Census data

1951 U.S Census Report
Contains 1950 census results {{Authority control

Census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

United States census