1930 U.S. Federal Census
In accordance with the Fifteenth Census Act, approved June 18, 1929, "a census of population, agriculture, irrigation, drainage, distribution, unemployment, and mines [was] taken by the Director of the Census" on April 1, 1930, with the exception of Alaska, where the official start date was October 1, 1929.2
All responses were to reflect the individual's status on the official start date, even if the status had changed between the official start date and the day of enumeration. The 1930 census includes schedules for overseas military and naval forces.
Population Census Items
Address; name; relationship to family head; home owned or rented; value or monthly rental; radio set; whether on a farm; sex; race; age; marital status; age at first marriage; school attendance; literacy; birthplace of person and parents; if foreign born language spoken in home before coming to U.S., year of immigration, whether naturalized, and ability to speak English; occupation, industry, and class of worker; whether at work previous day (or last regular working day); veteran status; for Indians, whether of full or mixed blood, and tribal affiliation.1
Historical Forms and Questions
The 1930 Census broadened its scope of race and ethnicity by adding several groups to the list, including: Mexican, Filipino, Hindu, and Korean. Black was referred to as Negro, and Hindu, actually a religious group, served as an ethnicity. This was also the first census to monitor technology by adding a column for "radio set" to the "Home Data" section, formerly titled 'Ownership of Home." View sample forms** Click here for a FREE 1930 Census form from Ancestry.com (Adobe Acrobat required)
<< United States Federal Census
1 Availability of Census Records About Individuals, U.S. Census Bureau Web Site, www.census.gov
2 Census of Population and Housing, U.S. Census Bureau Web Site, www.census.gov
3 The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Loretto Dennis Szucs; edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997).
