The 1950 US Census
Harry S. Truman was president, the post-WWII economic boom was in full swing, New York was the most populous state, Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts first appeared in seven newspapers, and the total US population barely exceeded 150M for the first time at 150,697,361. It was a 14.5% increase over the 1940 population, but less than half the 2020 population of 331,449,281. By now you certainly know that images of the Federal Census for that year will be released to the public for the first time on April 1st. Also for the first time, an Optical Character Recognition (OCR)-generated electronic index will be available from Day One.
The National Archives has a page dedicated to the 1950 Census, where links to the census images, electronic index, and a download of the full 1950 Census dataset will appear April 1st. Images and the index will appear shortly later on FamilySearch and Ancestry, but the National Archives will be the first place to see them.
Between now and April 1st, you can explore several of the National Archives’ related pages to prepare. See the links below, along with a few descriptions of what you’ll find on some of those pages:
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About Author
Aaron Goodwin
Aaron is a genealogist and house historian specializing in New York City research across all time periods, from the Dutch colonial era to the 20th century. His book, New York City Municipal Archives: An Authorized Guide for Family Historians, won the National Genealogical Society’s 2017 Award for Excellence: Genealogical Methods and Sources. He is also editor of NGS Monthly, former contributing editor of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, and former editor of the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. In 2011, he received the American Society of Genealogists’ Scholar Award.