1940 Census

The 1940 census was carried out on the people then living in the United States to ascertain their full numbers, for the interest and use by the government of the country. As such, the 194o census was under the control of the Census Bureau, as has traditionally carried out this task for the U.S. The 1940 census marked the 16th procedure to be administered in the U.S. In the modern era, the documents produced by the 1940 census have been made available through the system of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, and can also be located through the National Historical Geographic Information System.

The 1940 census was carried out on the first of the April of that year. When fully tabulated, the results of the 1940 census revealed that the population of the United States at that time, so far as was evident to the Census Bureau, was composed of 132,164,569. In this respect, the 1940 census revealed an increase in U.S. population numbers at a rate of 7.3 in comparison with the figures collected ten years before in the 1930 census, which had showed 123,202,624 to be then resident within the borders of the nation.

In this respect, the 1940 census holds historical significance in bearing witness to the continued reduction in the population growth occurring in the United States of the mid-century, in comparison to the explosive growth which had taken place at the century’s turn and its first two centuries. The 1940 census also incorporated new queries.

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