Historical Publications
Finding Data


The Census Bureau has published reports on its findings since the first census in 1790. The complete statistics and graphs from these reports can be found online in PDF copies of the original reports (or in libraries, in their original form and microfilm copies) and a limited portion of these statistics can be found in an online database at the University of Virginia Library. If you are interested in downloading the data to manipulate on your own, read on here for historic data and here for data from the 1990 and 2000 censuses.

Full copies of the original reports are available online as PDF files. Except for the 1990 and 2000 Census, however, the Census Bureau maintains no central, searchable online database for particular numbers, tables, or graphs from these publications. The University of Virginia has an excellent site here with searchable data from 1790 to 1960. This data is not designed to be downloaded, does not include individuals names, and does not cover areas below the county level (e.g. cities or census tracts).

The Census Bureau also makes available online retrospective short papers compiling certain types of data across years. Though as a group not particularly organized or searchable, the papers themselves are accessibly readable, straightforward short text files with small tables of data compiled from several censuses. They can be found amongst more recent reports here. You'll have to browse around a bit.

The only reason to suggest these short papers over the more comprehensive original Census reports is that the PDF files are large and burdensome to search through. The rectrospective papers also sometimes publish data that does not appear in the original reports. If you have searched through the original report and have not found what you are looking for, you could try checking out these papers before attempting to manipulate sample data yourself. Looking through the original reports, however, is an experience itself and much worth the effort.

If you prefer to view the Census reports in their hard forms, many larger libraries contain copies. Their collections, however, are often incomplete, particularly with the older censuses. You are more likely to find complete copies on microfilm. You can find a guide to the microfilm collection on the National Archives website.



Keep in Mind


In early census years there was only a single census report. Later censuses, however, contained several reports. In fact, sometimes hundreds of reports. These would include partial updates as the census data was being published, and in many cases several final reports for different surveys conducted as part of the census. Beginning with the third census, in 1810, these additional surveys were added onto the population survey, including censuses of manufacturing, housing conditinos, and census of churches and other social institutions. The results of these surveys would often appear in separate reports, but not always. Additionally, in more recent years, the bulk of census publications have resulted from the numerous surveys, population and otherwise, taken between the decennial censuses. For a thorough information about changes in the census surveys and reports over time, explore the Census Bureau's excellent history site.