The 1930 United States census, conducted by the

Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

one month from April 1, 1930, determined the resident population of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to be 122,775,046, an increase of 13.7 percent over the 106,021,537 persons enumerated during the

1920 census The 1920 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau during one month from January 5, 1920, determined the resident population of the United States to be 106,021,537, an increase of 15.0 percent over the 92,228,496 persons enumerated d ...

. It was the first time the effects of

suburban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...

were recorded when, during the

Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western world, Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultura ...

, a significant portion of the working population of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

moved to

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, aided by the

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee in Bergen County, New Jersey, with the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is named after George W ...

which permitted quick transport from the state to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Census questions

The 1930 census collected the following information: * address * name * relationship to head of family * home owned or rented ** if owned, value of home ** if rented, monthly rent * whether owned a

radio set An antique radio is a radio receiving set that is collectible because of its age and rarity. Types of antique radio Morse receivers The first radio receivers used a coherer and sounding board, and were only able to receive continuous wave (CW) ...

* whether on a farm * sex * race * age * marital status and, if married, age at first marriage * school attendance * literacy * birthplace of person, and their parents * if foreign born: ** language spoken at home before coming to the U. S. ** year of immigration ** whether naturalized ** ability to speak English * occupation, industry and class of worker * whether at work previous day (or last regular work day) * veteran status * if Indian: ** whether of full or mixed blood ** tribal affiliation Full documentation for the 1930 census, including census forms and enumerator instructions, is available from the

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series IPUMS, originally the ''Integrated Public Use Microdata Series'', is the world's largest individual-level population database. IPUMS consists of microdata samples from United States ''(IPUMS-USA)'' and international ''(IPUMS-International)'' cens ...

Data availability

The original census enumeration sheets were microfilmed by the Census Bureau in 1949, after which the original sheets were destroyed. The microfilmed census is located on 2,667 rolls of microfilm, and available from the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

. Several organizations also host images of the microfilmed census online, and digital indices. Microdata from the 1930 census are freely available through the

Aggregate data Aggregate data is high-level data which is acquired by combining individual-level data. For instance, the output of an industry is an aggregate of the firms’ individual outputs within that industry. Aggregate data are applied in statistics, d ...

for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, can be downloaded from the

National Historical Geographic Information System The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) is a historical GIS project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate United States Census, census information for the United States between Uni ...

State rankings

City rankings

Locations of 50 most populous cities

Notes

External links

1930 Census Questions
Hosted at CensusFinder.com
1931 U.S Census Report
Contains 1930 census results

''1930Census.com''
1930 United States Census for Genealogy & Family History Research
1930 Interactive US Census
Find stories, photos and more attached to names on the 1930 US census. {{Authority control

Census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

United States census