DYK we used microfilming cameras to record images of census records in the 1930s? Microfilmed records became increasingly important as census records could be used as proof of age for pensions and government benefits.#TBT
April 1 is #CensusDay! 🎉 Census Day, the day that determines who is counted and where they are counted, has been April...
Census Day, the day that determines who is counted and where they are counted, has been April 1 since 1930. Prior to 1930, the day moved around between January, April, June, and August.
On April 6, 1929, Census Bureau Director William Mott Steuart correctly predicted that the 1930 Census count would exceed 120 million during a radio interview about the agency's activities. One year later, the 1930 Census recorded the nation’s resident population at 123,202,624.
In addition to including a question to which 12 million households reported owning a radio, the 1930 Census also was the first to use the new medium to promote census participation through interviews, announcements, and news reports.
The census relied upon free print, radio, and television advertising until Census 2000, when we implemented the first paid advertising campaign to encourage census participation. The 2020 Census public education and outreach campaign including public events, partnerships, and digital and traditional media advertising that will reach 99 percent of the nation’s households.
Learn more about the history of how we have conducted and promoted the census at https://go.usa.gov/xvTrR.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Census Instructions
The decennial census has always required a large workforce to visit and collect data from households. Between 1790 to 1870, the duty of collecting census data fell upon the U.S. Marshals. A March 3, 1879 act replaced the U.S. Marshals with specially hired and trained census-takers to conduct the 1880 and subsequent censuses.
During the early censuses, U.S. Marshalls received little training or instruction on how to collect census data. In fact, it was not until 1830 that marshals even received printed shedules on which to record households' responses. The marshals often received limited instruction from the census acts passed prior to each census.
Beginning with the 1880 census, specially hired and trained census-takers replaced the U.S. marshals. Door-to-door census by temporary census-takers was the primary method of conducting the census until the U.S. Census Bureau began mailing questionnaires to households in 1960.
As more and more households received and returned their questionnaires by mail, the role of census-taker changed. Today, the majority of households are counted by mailed questionnaires. Census-takers visit places frequented by transient households (shelters and soup kitchens, campsites, etc.) and households that do not return their mailed questionnaires (during the "Nonresponse Follow-Up" phase of the census). As a result, the "Instructions to Enumerators" provided here include the congressional acts U.S. marshalls reviewed during the early census, specially-published instructions for door-to-door census, and lastly, guides used for the limited number of personal interviews conducted during nonresponse follow-up operations.
Did you know? 🧐 The 1930 census asked whether a household owned a radio. 📻 This wasn’t random — it was a measure of economic status during the early Depression era. Small checkbox. Big socioeconomic clue.
