1950 Census – How It was Done in 1950
The official date for the Federal census in 1950 was April 1st. But no way could all households be contacted in one single day. Instead, it took a full month.
There were about 140,000 census enumerators (census takers) employed during April 1950 to go across the nation during April of 1950. They went to households, knocked on doors and spoke to someone in the household about those individuals who lived in the residence. They asked for names, ages, marriages, divorce, education, job, a woman’s number of children they had, race of an individual, and their income. Many more personal details were gathered. Approximately 151 million Americans were now on the Federal 1950 census records – sealed for 72 years and now available to the public in 2022.
Now available are some 6.4 million pages digitized from 6,373 microfilm census rolls. This 1950 census will provide a wonderful snapshot, look back in the time of Americans – many of our ancestors, where and how they lived.
Keep in mind, names and information were recorded for those youngsters living on April 1, 1950, most of those individuals alive in 2022. The estimate is that of the 151 million Americans on the 1950 census – that about 26 million are living today. That is why this 1950 census is so special.
Also after going through the Great Depression and World War 2 – the new decade of the 1950s began the modern era. Some interesting information shows that about 28% of households had a television and 97% had a radio. Most people did not have air-conditioning. Those few years after 1945 and the end of World War 2 was just the beginning of the suburbs, so in 1950 most people still lived in rural areas or towns.
The information on the 1950 census will be available on Ancestry.com, on MyHeritage.com and FamilySearch, right away.
This will be an exciting census to explore.
Photo: 1950 census badge – logo
Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:
Reading between the Census Lines
The Importance of the US Census
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