Digital Data from 19th Century Census

Hi John,

Colleagues have suggested a few places where you may be able to get digital data or statistics. It looks like they all charge a fee.

Historical Statistics of the United States Millennial Edition Online

University of Virginia Library

Historical, Demographic, Economic, and Social Data: The United States, 1790-1970

Hi Catherine, thanks so much.  I don't want the compiled data rather I want

individual household data all fields and the ability to look at each piece

of data so I can cross reference information on addresses and individuals.

John

Sadly, as far as we're aware, census datasets are not available. If anyone out there knows differently, we'd love to be proved wrong! It sounds like you could really get some great information out of that data.

Okay thanks so much.

Looks like I spoke too soon. A colleague says:

There are other institutions that have created databases pulling from 19th-century decennial censuses.  For example, the Minnesota Population Center has Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) USA at https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml.  On the page listing the source for their samples, they indicate some contacts for obtaining some of the household data that includes names.  The Minnesota Population Center also hosts the North Atlantic Population Project at https://www.nappdata.org/napp/   If the researcher is at a university, they may wish to check with their data librarian or see what is available through the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).  Obviously, these are non-government organizations.     

NARA does have various Census data starting with the 1900 Census and some of these files are available for download from the Catalog.  Some of this data includes samples at the household level, but no names.  For example: 1900 Census Public Use Sample:https://catalog.archives.gov/id/596407 and 1940 Census Public Use Sample: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/601838

(As always, links to outside organizations do not imply endorsement.)

As far as I know, even when the commercial companies index data they do not transcribe all the fields in the census and those commercial companies who digitize whole census reels don't usually index them at all. 

You might try getting a digital copy of the census and then using OCR to index it yourself.  The accuracy won't be perfect at all, but it will be as close as you probably can get.

As far as I know, even when the commercial companies index data they do not transcribe all the fields in the census and those commercial companies who digitize whole census reels don't usually index them at all. 

You might try getting a digital copy of the census and then using OCR to index it yourself.  The accuracy won't be perfect at all, but it will be as close as you probably can get.