1940 QUESTIONNAIRE-CENSUS OF VACANT DWELLINGS

(16" X 19," printed on two sides, space for 15 entries on each side, reverse side identical excerpt that lines were numbered 16 to 30, yellow stock.) "Color or race of head" and "Number of persons in household" (items 3 and 4 on "Occupied-Dwelling Schedule") did not appear on the "Vacant-Dwelling Schedule;" items 8-17 were the same as items 8-17 on the "Occupied Dwelling Schedule;" items 18-31 which appeared on the "Occupied Dwelling Schedule" were omitted from the "Vacant-Dwelling Schedule."

Instructions to Enumerators

The term "structure" was roughly comparable with "dwelling house" used in previous censuses, and 1940 "occupied dwelling units" could be equated with "homes" in 1930. The 1940 housing census, however, included vacant, habitable dwelling units and structures. It excluded units occupied by quasi households (defined as 10 or more lodgers) and various types of institutional and other places (later called "group quarters") not generally considered as part of the U.S. housing market. The dwelling unit itself was defined as "the living quarters occupied by, or intended for occupancy by, one household."

The instructions for answering the questions on the occupied and vacant dwelling schedules were fairly simple, and in many cases were spelled out on the forms themselves. Item 11 (state of repair) required the enumerator to report the structure as "needing major repairs" when parts of it, such as floors, roof, walls, or foundations required repair or replacement, "the continued neglect of which would impair the soundness of the structure and create a hazard to its safety as a place of residence."

1950 QUESTIONNAIRE-POPULATION The basic schedule, form P1, was a white 19′′ X 22" sheet, printed in green ink on both sides. The front included space for population information for 30 persons, with a separate line for each person enumerated. (The reverse side, the housing schedule, contained spaces for information for 12 dwelling units that housed the persons enumerated on the population side of the form.) Questions 15 through 20 were asked only for persons 14 years of age and over.

Questions at the bottom of the schedule (21-33c) were asked for the one person in five whose name fell on a sample line that was indicated in black. (There were five printings to vary the sample lines.) The person whose name fell on the last sample line was also asked the additional questions from 34 on. Of the sample items, Nos. 29 on applied only to persons 14 years of age and over.

Instructions to Enumerators

Changes from 1940 were few. Special pains were taken in the 1950 census, however, to distinguish among institutions, households, and quasi households (five or more nonrelatives of the head, other than employees). College students were to be enumerated where they lived while attending school, rather than where their homes were located. Members of the Armed Forces who slept off post would be counted where they slept rather than where they were stationed.

The instructions continued to allow anyone to be designated as head of the household for relationship purposes, but if a woman was listed as head and her husband was present, he was reclassified as the head when the completed schedule was reviewed in the office. (At the time, the number of such cases was relatively small.)

A "family" was distinguished from a "household" in that the family represented a group of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption. A household could contain one or more families, or none, but would occupy only one dwelling unit (quarters with separate cooking equipment or (new for 1950) a separate entrance.)

As in 1940, there was a separate form a respondent could use to report income. However, this was now a selfmailing piece (form P6) which the householder was asked to complete and post (rather than hand it to the enumerator).

A supplemental schedule (form P8) was used to obtain additional information on Indian reservations. In addition to entering each person's name as it appeared on the regular schedule, the enumerator wrote in any other name(s) by which that person was known.

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Measuring America