Documentation: Census 1960 (US, County & State)
you are here: choose a survey survey document chapter
Publisher: U.S. Census Bureau
Document: Age at First Marriage (Volume II, Part IV - Subject Reports)
citation:
U.S. Bureau of the Census. U.S. Census of Population: 1960. Subject Reports, Age at First Marriage. Final Report PC(2)-4D. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1966.
Age at First Marriage (Volume II, Part IV - Subject Reports)
Definitions and Explanations
Some of the definitions used in 1960 differ from those used in 1950. These changes were made after consultation with users of census data in order to improve the statistics, even though it was recognized that comparability would be affected. The definitions and explanations should be interpreted in the context of the 1960 Censuses, in which data were collected by a. combination of self-enumeration, direct Interview, and observation by the enumerator.

The definitions below are consistent with the instructions given to the enumerator. As in all surveys, there were some failures to execute the instructions exactly. Through the forms distributed to households, the respondents were given explanations of some of the questions more uniformly than would have been given in direct interviews. Nevertheless, it was not feasible to give the full instructions to the respondents, and some erroneous replies have undoubtedly gone undetected.

More complete discussions of the definitions of population items are given in 1960 Census of Population, Volume I, Characteristics of the Population, Part 1, United States Summary, and in each of the State parts.
Age at First Marriage and Related Topics
Whether married more than once
In the 1960 Census information on whether the person was married more than once was determined by a direct question for all persons ever married (see below).
Year of first marriage
The year of first marriage for all ever-married persons was obtained from answers to the following questions on the Household Questionnaire:


This information was then transcribed, to the sample FOSDIC schedule as follows:


If information on these items had not been entered on the Household Questionnaire for an ever-married person, the enumerator was instructed to ask the questions. The enumerator was instructed to find out the date of .marriage for the husband and enter this also for the wife if both the man and wife had been married only once. If either had been married more than once, the enumerator asked for the date of first marriage of each. If a person had been married before 1890, the enumerator marked 1890 and found out in which calendar quarter the marriage occurred. When the year of first marriage was known and the month was not, the enumerator attempted, to determine the season in which marriage took place. When the year was unknown, the enumerator tried to find out, as accurately as possible, how many years ago the person was first married. Using this information, and month of marriage, the enumerator obtained year of marriage by subtraction; where both month and year were unknown, the enumerator obtained year of first marriage from information on the number of years since first marriage, if available, on the assumption that the month of marriage was between April and December.

All persons who first married in the same period may be regarded as members of the same marriage cohort. For information on Uses and Limitations of the Data in the present report for cohorts of persons man years ago, see the section below on "Uses and Limitations of the Data."
Years since first marriage
The number of years since the person's first marriage was derived by subtracting the date of first marriage from April 1, 1960, and represents the interval in completed years.
Age at first marriage
In this report, age at first marriage is shown in completed years for all ever-married persons. In tables showing age at marriage by age at census, the data are based on persons who were 14 to 79 years old at the census date. The upper limit was set at 79 years because it is the upper limit of the oldest 5-year age group in which no persons could have been married before 1890, the earliest year for which year at first marriage was recorded on the sample FOSDIC schedule.

In deriving age at first marriage, the year and quarter of the person's birth was subtracted from the year and quarter of the person's first marriage. Where the result of this subtraction included a fraction (e.g., age at marriage 21 ¼, 21 ½, or 2 ¾), the fraction was dropped, so as to express the result in completed years of age at first marriage. Where the result of the subtraction included no fraction, which was the case when the quarter of birth and first marriage were the same, the result was reduced by 1 year in approximately one-half the cases, namely, those in which the quarter was January to March or October to December. This adjustment was not made, however, where the result of the subtraction, was 14 years.

The adjustment was made in order to eliminate the upward bias in the distribution by age at marriage that would otherwise have occurred. For example, the calculated difference between a birth date of April- June 1925 and a marriage date of April-June 1950 is 25 years. However, on the assumption that births and marriages were evenly distributed throughout their respective quarters, only one-half of the persons with these dates were married after their 25th birthday, and one-half were married before their 25th birthday. Omission of the adjustment would have resulted in classifying about one-half of all persons who had the same quarter of birth and marriage in the next higher year of age at marriage than the one in which they were actually married. It is recognized that in age ranges where the marriage rate increases rapidly, as from 14 to 20 years of age, the adjustment resulted in some overstatement of the number of persons marrying at very young ages. However, the General effect of the adjustment was to increase the accuracy of the overall distribution by age at marriage and, especially, the median age at marriage.

For information on Editing and allocation procedures for year of and age at first marriage, see the section below on "Editing."
Rate of first marriage
Average annual first marriages per 1,000 single persons14 to 44 years old are shown, by age, in tables 16 to 18. The numerator of this rate is the average annual number of persons who first married at a given age in 1958 and 1959. The denominator is the average annual number of persons who were of that age and single on July 1, 1958 and 1959. This figure was obtained by averaging the number of persons who were of the given age and single on July 1, 1958, with the corresponding number for July 1, 1959. The number of single persons on July 1, 1958, is the sum of (1) persons who were single at the census date and (2) persons ever married at the census date who first married after July 1, 1958. The number of single- persons on July 1, 1959, is defined in corresponding fashion, except with reference to July 1, 1959, instead of 1958. Persons who were 14 to 44 years old and single on both dates were counted twice-once in the column for their age on July 1, 1958, and once in the column for their age on July 1, 1959.
Uses and Limitations of the Data
The statistics in this report make possible the study of the relationships between age at first marriage, on one hand, and marital stability, remarriage, and a variety of social characteristics, on the other. Furthermore, the data provide an opportunity for study of trends in age at first marriage in the entire population and in the various ethnic and racial groups that make it up. Detail by single years of first marriage and single years of age at first marriage makes possible the analysis of the effects of historical events on number and age distribution of first marriages. In addition, the data give information on geographic variations in age at, first marriage.

In using the data in this report, it should be kept in mind that, in general, they refer to the characteristics of the population at the time of the enumeration. Thus, the data on residence, race, marital status, educational attainment, and occupation, refer to these characteristics as of 1960, and the data on income refer to Income In 1959. Among these characteristics, race is fixed, and education does not change for most persons after age 25. However, residence, occupation, and Income are changeable; consequently, the person's status with respect to these characteristics may differ from his status at the time of his first marriage, especially If he was married many years before the census. These differences in the time reference of the characteristics should be taken into account in interpreting the data.

The data shown in tables 3, 4 and 4a for the survivors enumerated in 1960 of marriage cohorts married many years ago are not strictly representative of the age-at-marriage distribution of the original membership of the cohort. Because of the effect of higher mortality among older persons, those members of the cohort who were older at marriage are subject to higher mortality rates and are less likely to have survived than those who were younger at the time of marriage. After a number of years, the changes in the cohort become so large that the survivors are no longer representative of the original cohort. With the aid of life tables for the years between marriage and the enumeration date, the data for survivors can be supplemented by estimates of the persons who died between the date of marriage and the census date. Such a procedure was used for data shown in Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 108, "Marriage, Fertility, and Childspacing: August, 1959," to estimate the distribution by age at first marriage for all women, Including deceased, who first married between 1900 and 1959. In that report, for example, the median age at first marriage for white women who first married in 1900 to 1909 was 20.2 years based on data for survivors to 1959. However, when the data were supplemented by estimates tor the women who died between the date of marriage and the date of the survey, the median age at first marriage was 21.2 years. For further information, see the section "Adjusted data for marriage cohorts" In the 1959 report.
Quality of the Data
The Quality of the Data on age at first marriage may be judged from information on rates of allocation for nonresponse, that is, cases where the person failed to supply the necessary information or gave a response inconsistent with other information in the schedule. Because age at first marriage was derived from date of first marriage and date of birth, a nonresponse of either of these items caused a nonresponse on age at first marriage.

A person was classified as having an allocated age at first marriage if his year of first marriage or his year of birth or both were allocated. All persons with a nonresponse on date of first marriage were assigned, a definite date, as explained below in the section on "Editing," and the relatively small number of persons with a nonresponse on date of birth were assigned a definite birth date. However, only assignments of year of first marriage or birth were counted as allocations. Where only calendar quarter was missing, the assignment of this information was not counted as an allocation, and is not reflected in the data on allocated age at, first marriage.
Age at first marriage was allocated for 6.6 percent, of all ever-married males and for 7.0 percent of females. For nonwhites, the corresponding figures were 14.5 percent, for males and 15.0 percent for females (table A).

Table A. Percent with Allocated Age at First Marriage; by Color and Sex: 1960
colorMaleFemale
Total6.67.0
White5.86.1
Nonwhite14.515.0


About 94.7 percent of allocations for age at first marriage for men, and about 93.9 percent for women, were, in whole or in part, the result of allocations for nonresponse on data of first marriage (table B).

Table B. Percent Distribution by Components of Allocation, By Sex: 1960

SubjectMaleFemale
Total, persons with age at first marriage allocated (Thousands)3,0033,951
Percent100.0100.0
Date of first marriage allocated94.793.9
Date of birth also allocated9.69.7
Date of birth not allocated85.184.1
Date of first marriage not allocated, date of birth allocated5.36.1


In general, allocations for nonresponse were relatively high among persons marrying at the younger and the older ages, and low for those marrying near the median age at first marriage. The categories, in which marriage is rare, such as males 14 to 17 years old, have the highest allocation rates (table C).
Table C. Percent with Allocated age at First Marriage, By age at First Marriage and Sex: 1960

age at first marriageMaleFemale
Total 6.67.0
14 to 17 years22.59.4
18 an 19 years6.75.0
20 to 24 years5.06.0
25 to 29 years5.88.7
30 to 34 years7.58.0
35 years and over11.09.6


Allocation rates for age at first marriage were lower for persons 25 to 44 years old at the time of the census than for younger or older persons (table D).

Table D. Percent with Allocated age at First Marriage, by Age at Census and Sex: 1960

age at censusMaleFemale
Total6.67.0
14 to 24 years9.48.1
25 to 34 years5.45.6
35 to 44 years5.86.2
45 to 54 years6.77.2
55 to 64 years7.57.9
65 to 74 years7.88.5


Although rigid precautions were taken to record date of first marriage correctly, some inaccuracies due to failure of memory of older persons may have remained undetected. In addition, some enumerators may have failed to determine whether the person had been married more than once, or persons may have given incorrect answers to conceal births of illegitimate children or a previous marriage. The extent of allocations was not tabulated by year of first marriage. However, the differences between the distribution age at first marriage for persons who first married in 1959 and 1960 and the distributions for persons first married in the immediately prior years, shown in table 3 of this report, suggest that the prop allocations may have been larger than average data for 1959 and 1960. This result could have been produced by the procedures used to allocate data for nonresponse. For further information on procedures for Editing and allocation, see the section on "Editing," below.
Comparability
Earlier census data
T he statistics published in reports of the 1940 Census under the Differential Fertility-1940 and 1910 included data on age at first marriage for women 15 to 74 years old for 1940. The published data on this subject were limited to women who were reported, as married once with husband present, because relatively large proportions of the other ever-married women made no report on this subject. In the 1940 Census, women were asked their age at first marriage, whereas in the 1960 Census, age at first marriage was derived from answer to questions on birthdate and date of first marriage. About 4.4 percent of women who were married once with husband present did not respond to the question Census, as compared with the figure of 7.0 percent of ever-married women14 to 79 years old for whom age at first marriage was allocated in the 1960 Census. Allocations for nonresponse were not made for the data on age at first marriage in 1940, hut were made during the Editing of the 1960 Census data. These differences between the 1940 and the 1960 Censuses with respect to the method of obtaining information on age at marriage, the extent of nonresponse, and the method of dealing with nonresponses may have created son of comparability between the resulting statistics.

The statistics on duration of current marital status for women that were published in 1950 Census Population, Volume IV, Part 2, chapter E, Duration of Current Marital Status, included data on age at first marriage for women married once with husband present. For these women, information on number of years since first marriage was obtained from answers to the following question: "How many years since this person was married?" age at first marriage was derived by subtracting the number of completed years since first marriage from the woman's age in completed years. For example, if a woman reported that she had been married for 3 years and that she was 23 years old at the time of the enumeration, she was classified as 20 years at first marriage.

This basis of classification yields results that differ from the data on age at first marriage shown in the present report. If age in completed years at census is 23 years, the range of exact ages is 23.00 to 23.99 years; if the duration of marriage is 3 years, the range of exact duration is 3.00 to 3.99 years. The limits of the range of derived age at marriage are, therefore, 19.01 to 20.99 years and the midpoint for this interval is 20.00 years. Data in the present report were derived from information on calendar quarter and year of birth and marriage, rather than year alone. As a result, age 20 at first marriage in the present report has the more conventional meaning of 20.00 to 20.99 years, and the midpoint is one-half year higher than the midpoint of age 20 at first marriage in the 1950 Census data.

The median ages at first marriage shown in the 1950 Census data take account of the method by which age at first marriage was derived, and may be compared with corresponding medians in the present report. Comparability of the figures for any given age at marriage is impaired, however, for the reason set forth above and because the derivation of age at first marriage from information in completed years tends to produce a flatter distribution than would be produced if more detailed information on birthdate and date of first marriage were available. As indicated above, the women classified in each single year of age at marriage in the 1950 Census data were drawn from women whose true ages at marriage covered a range of 2 years. Consequently, the figures are subject to an averaging effect, whereby the true frequencies in each age at marriage are averaged with the frequencies for adjoining ages. The resulting distribution tends to understate the true frequencies in the most popular ages at marriage, and to overstate the others.
1960 Census data in other reports
Data in this report are consistent with corresponding data in 1960 Census of Population, PC(2) -4E, Marital Status. There are some small differences between the statistics in these reports and the statistics on age at first marriage, year of first marriage, and years since first marriage in PC(2)-3A, women by number of children ever born, and PC(2)-4A, Families. These differences are the result of a supplementary edit which was performed to correct faulty dates of first marriage for a relatively small number of persons. The supplementary edit was performed prior to tabulation of the data in this report and the report on marital status, but after tabulation of the other two reports.
Current Population Survey
Table E shows distributions by age at first marriage for white women who first married in 1900 to 1959, from the present report and from the August 1959 Current Population Survey (CPS), the results of which were published in Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 108. Some differences between the two sets of figures are to be expected because of differences in dates and coverage between the census and the CPS, and because of the sampling error associated with estimates based on the CPS. The CPS data were collected in August 1959, as compared with the April 1960 date of the census. The CPS survey was limited to the civilian non-institutional population, whereas the census included military personnel and inmates of institutions; and the CPS did not include Alaska and Hawaii, which were included in the census. However, these differences do not account for differences in the figures for two of the groups shown. The census shows significantly more women first married in 1930 to 1939 and significantly fewer women first married in 1900 to 1909 than does the CPS. The latter difference is to be expected because this group has reached an advanced age, at which the effect of mortality during the 8-month period between the census and the survey would be substantial. However, the inclusion of inmates of institutions in the census, and their exclusion from the CPS, would have a compensating effect, tending to make the numbers of women first married in 1900 to 1909 in the census and the CPS more nearly equal than they are.

The explanation for both these differences appears to lie in differences between the age structure of the population enumerated in the 1960 Census and the age structure of the independent estimates used to inflate the sample data from the CPS in 1959. Thus, the census shows more women of an age to have been married for the first time in 1930 to 1939, and fewer women of an age to have been married for the first time in 1900 to 1909, than were shown in the independent population estimates used to inflate the CPS data.

The proportion of women who first married at 25 years of age and over is generally higher in the census data than in the CPS, and the proportion of women who first married under 22 years of age is correspondingly lower. In the figures for women first married before 1930, these differences produce differences of three- or four-tenths of a year in the median age at first marriage. The aforementioned differences between the census and the CPS cannot account for these differences in the figures; nor can the amount of Editing, which was similar. In-the census, about 6 percent of the white women had a date of first marriage that was allocated for nonresponse and inconsistency. In the CPS, an estimated 5 percent of the white women had a blank decade or year of first marriage, and an additional 1.4 percent had a reported date of first marriage that yielded a derived age under 14 years at first marriage prior to Editing.

In the CPS, a manual edit was performed in which women with blank dates of first marriage were assigned a date of marriage in accordance with distributions, based on the 1950 Census, which took into account date of birth of the first child, where available. The relatively small number of white women whose reported date of first marriage yielded a derived age under 14 years in the tabulations were distributed pro rata among ages 14 years and over at first marriage. Differences between those procedures and the 1960 Census procedures described in the section on "Editing," below, might give rise to some differences in the resulting statistics. However, given the relatively small proportion of persons requiring allocation, it is unlikely that differences in editing procedure could produce differences of the size shown for some cohorts in table E.

In the CPS, the question on date of first marriage was asked at the end of the interview, following a series of questions on the dates of birth of the woman's children. This sequence may have led some women to give a marriage date earlier than they might otherwise have given. In the 1960 Census, date of first marriage was asked in the self-administered Household Questionnaire; this did not include the question on birthdates of children, which had been reported previously in the Advance Census Report.

Table F shows comparisons by color for women who first married in 1950 to 1959. Most of the difference between the CPS and the census with respect to the percent of nonwhite women who first married at 14 to 17 years of age is attributable to differences in the handling of ages under 14 years at first marriage. Whereas white women in the CPS with a reported age under 1.5 years at first marriage were distributed among all ages 15 years and over at first marriage, among non- whites the number of women with a reported marriage age under ill was so large that these cases were assumed to reflect chiefly early marriages and, therefore, were combined with data for the group) married at age 14 to 17.
Vital Statistics
Table G shows comparisons of the average annual number of persons first married at ages 14 to 44 years in 1958 and 1959 for 26 States from table 18 of this report with the corresponding figures based on registered marriages, published in Vital Statistics of the United States for 1958 and 1959. The 26 States are those for which the number of registered first marriages by age and sex was available for the entire State in 1958 and 1959. The differences shown between the census and vital statistics with respect to total number of first marriages are relatively small. Such differences as there are may be attributable to the fact that in the vital statistics, marriages were classified by the State in which they occurred, whereas in the census, persons who first married in 1958 and 1959 were classified by their State of residence in 1960. Thus, differences in the number of marriages from the two sources may appear because some persons married in States other than their State of residence in 1960, and because some persons changed their residence from one State to another between marriage and the date of the enumeration. Furthermore, differences in reporting of date of first marriage or age could result in the inclusion of a person in the census figures and his exclusion from registered marriages, and vice versa.

Table E. Comparison of 1960 Census Data by age at First Marriage with Data from the August 1959 Current Population Survey, For White Women Who First Married In 1900 To 1959, For the United States

Year of first marriage of womenTotal white women (thousands)Percent by age at first marriageMedian age at first marriage (years)
Total14 to 17 years18 and 19 years20 and 21 years22 to 24 years25 to 29 years30 years and over
1960 Census 
1950 to 1959110,618100.019.026.120.616.59.97.920.5
1940 to 194911,987100.014.621.120.720.413.99.321.4
1930 to 19398,745100.016.219.619.321.015.58.621.5
1920 to 19297,321100.018.420.118.819.615.18.021.2
1910 to 19195,185100.018.120.619.920.714.85.921.1
1900 to 19092,862100.022.323.020.619.011.53.620.5
1959 CPS 
1950 to 195929,823100.019.925.722.016.49.16.820.4
1940 to 194911,871100.014.321.820.720.514.78.021.3
1930 to 19398,406100.016.120.919.520.815.86.821.3
1920 to 19297,482100.020.321.119.619.113.66.220.8
1910 to 19195,137100.019.822.620.420.012.15.120.7
1900 to 19092,925100.022.625.320.819.410.41.620.2
Deviation of census from CPS 
1950 to 19592795-0.90.4-1.40.10.81.10.1
1940 to 19491160.3-0.7-0.1-0.81.30.1
1930 to 19393390.1-1.3-0.20.2-0.31.80.2
1920 to 1929-161-1.9-1.0-0.80.51.51.80.4
1910 to 191948-1.7-2.0-0.50.72.70.80.4
1900 to 1909-243-0.3-2.3-0.2-0.41.12.00.3

1Census includes women who first married in January to March 1960.
2CPS excludes women who first married in September to December 1959.

Table F. Comparison of 1960 Census Data by age at First Marriage with Data from the August 1959 Current Population Survey, For White and Nonwhite Women Who First Married In 1950 To 1959, For the United States


age at first marriageWhiteNonwhite
1960 Census1959 CPSDeviation of census from CPS1960 Census1959 CPSDeviation of census from CPS
Women first married in 1950 to 19591 (thousands)10,6189,8237951,4571,219238
Percent100.0100.0100.0100.0
14 to 17 years19.019.9-0.921.825.5-3.7
18 and 19 years26.125.70.420.221.7-1.5
20 and 21 years20.622.0-1.416.716.7
22 to 24 years16.516.40.116.116.1
25 to 29 years9.99.10.813.311.12.2
30 years and over7.96.81.111.98.93.0
Median age (years)20.520.40.121.020.30.7

1 Census includes women who first married in January to March 1960; CPS excludes women who first married in September to December 1959.

The census data show somewhat fewer first marriages at ages 20 to 24 than are shown by the registration data and more first marriages above and below these ages. These differences may arise from the differences noted above or from a variety of other sources, including the approximations required in order to de-rive some ages at first marriage (see section on "age at first marriage," above), and the fact that age at first marriage was allocated for 7 percent of persons in the census data, whereas the registration data included a negligible proportion of persons with a non- response on age at first marriage.

Table G. Comparison of 1960 Census Data on Average Annual First Marriages at ages 14 To 44 Years in 1958 and 1959 with Data Based On Registered Marriages, By age and Sex, For 26 States



age at first marriage and sex1960 CensusRegistered marriagesDeviation of census from registered marriages
Male 
Total (thousands)48146615
Percent100.0100.0
14 to 19 years19.316.62.7
20 to 24 years50.754.6-3.9
25 to 29 years19.318.90.4
30 to 34 years6.56.00.5
35 to 44 years4.23.80.4
Female 
Total (thousands)49346429
Percent100.0100.0
14 to 19 years50.149.80.3
20 to 24 years35.837.7-1.9
25 to 29 years8.67.41.2
30 to 34 years3.02.80.2
35 to 44 years2.52.50.3


The median is presented in connection with the data on age at first marriage, Years of School Completed, and income. It is the value which divides the distribution into two equal parts, one-half the cases falling below this value and one-half the cases exceeding this value.

A plus (+) or minus (-) sign after the median indicates that the median is above or below that number. For example, a median of $10,000+ for income indicates that the median fell in the interval "$10,000 or more."
The figure for mean earnings shown in table 14 is the number obtained by dividing the total earnings of a group by the number of persons in that group. The mean age at first marriage for persons in each of the groups shown in tables 4a, 9a, 11a, and 13a was obtained by dividing the sum of all ages at first marriage by the total number of persons in each group, and adding 0.5 years to the result. This last step took account of the fact that, on the average, persons are one-half year older at marriage than their age at marriage in completed years. For instance, persons who had completed 22 years of age when they were married were 22.5 years old at marriage, on the average.
Urban-Rural Residence
In general, the urban population comprises all persons living in urbanized areas and in places of 2, 500 inhabitants or more outside urbanized areas. More specifically, according to the definition adopted for use in the 1960 Census, the urban population comprises all persons living in (a) places of 2,500 inhabitants or more incorporated as cities, boroughs, villages, and towns (except towns in New England, New York, and Wisconsin) ; (b) the densely settled urban fringe, whether incorporated or unincorporated, of urbanized areas; (c) towns in New England and townships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania which contain no incorporated municipalities as subdivisions and have either 25,000 inhabitants or more or a population of 2,500 to 25,000 and a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; (d) counties in States other than the New England States, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania that have no incorporated municipalities within their boundaries and have a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; and (e) unincorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more. The population not classified as urban constitutes the rural population.
Farm-Nonfarm Residence
The rural population is subdivided into the rural-farm population, which comprises all rural residents living on farms, and the rural-nonfarm population, which, comprises the remaining rural population. In the 1960 Census, the farm population consists of persons living in rural territory on places of 10 or more acres from which sales of farm products amounted to $50 or more in 1959 or on places of less than 10 acres from which sales of farm products amounted to $250 or more in 1959. All persons living in group quarters are classified as nonfarm except the relatively few living in workers' quarters (including quarters for migratory agricultural workers) that are located on a farm or ranch.
Urbanized Area
An Urbanized Area contains at least one city of 50,000 Inhabitants or more in 1960 and the surrounding closely settled incorporated places and unincorporated areas that meet certain criteria relating to population density or land use. An Urbanized Area may be thought of as divided Into the central city, or cities, and the remainder of the area, or the urban fringe. All persons residing in an Urbanized Area are included in the urban population.
The age classification is based on the age of the person in completed years as of April 1, 1960, as determined from the reply to a question on month and year of birth. In tables 16 to 18, however, the age classification is based on the age of the person as of July 1, 1958 and 1959.
Race and Color
The term "color" refers to the division of population into two groups, white and nonwhite. The color group designated as "nonwhite" consists of such races as the Negro, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Hawaiian, Asian Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Malayan races. Persons of Mexican birth or ancestry who are not definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race are classified as white.
In addition to persons of Negro and of mixed Negro and white descent, this classification includes persons of mixed Indian and Negro descent, unless the Indian ancestry predominates or unless the Individual is regarded as an Indian in the community.
American Indian
In addition to full-blooded Indians, persons of mixed white and Indian blood are included if the proportion of Indian blood is one-fourth or more, or if they are regarded as Indian In the community.
Other races
Separate statistics are given in this report for Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos. The category "Other races" includes Koreans, Hawaiians, Asian Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, Malayans, etc.
Mixed parentage
Persons of mixed racial parentage are classified according to the race of the nonwhite parent, and mixtures of nonwhite races are, classified according to the race of the father, with the special exceptions noted above.
Nativity and Parentage
Comprises persons born in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a possession of the United States; persons born in a foreign country or at sea who have at least one native American parent; and persons whose place of birth was not reported and whose census report contained no contradictory information, such as an entry of a language spoken prior to coming to the United States.
Foreign born
Includes all persons not classified as native.
Native of native parentage
Consists of native persons both of whose parents are also natives of the United States.
Native of foreign or mixed parentage
Includes native persons one or both of whose parents are foreign born.
Foreign stock
Includes foreign-born persons and native persons of foreign or mixed parentage.
Country of Origin of the Foreign Stock
Persons of foreign stock are classified to their country of origin--country of birth foreign born and parents' country of birth for native of foreign or mixed parentage. Natives of foreign parentage whose parents were born in different countries are classified according to the country of birth of the father. Natives of mixed parentage classified according to the country of birth of the foreign-born parent. The classification by country of origin is based on international boundaries as recognized by the U.S. Government on April 1, 1960, although there may have been some deviation rules where respondents were unaware of changes in boundaries or jurisdiction.
Persons of Spanish Surname
In order to obtain data on Spanish- and Mexican- Americans for areas of the United States where most of them live, white persons (and white heads of households) of Spanish surname were distinguished separately in five Southwestern States (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas).
Puerto Ricans
Puerto Ricans comprise persons born in Puerto Rico and persons born In the United States or its possessions with one or both parents born in Puerto Rico.
Years of School Completed
The data on Years of School Completed were derived from the answers to the two questions; (a) "What is the highest grade (or year) of regular school, he has ever attended?" and (b) "Did he finish this grade (or year)?" Enumerators were instructed "to obtain the approximate equivalent grade in the American school system for persons whose highest grade of attendance was in a .foreign school system, whose highest level of attendance was in an ungraded school, whose highest level of schooling was measured, by "readers," or whose training by a tutor was regarded as qualifying under the "regular" school, definition. Persons were to answer "No" to the second question if they were attending school, had completed only part of a grade before they dropped out, or failed to pass the last grade attended.

The number in each category of highest grade of school completed represents the combination of (a) per-sons who reported that they had attended the indicated grade and finished it, and (b) those who had attended the next higher grade but had not finished it.
College Enrollment
College Enrollment is shown in table 15 for married men with wife present, who are not heads of house-holds. Persons were included as enrolled in college if they were reported as attending or enrolled in a "regular" college at any time between February 1, 1960, and the time of the enumeration. Schooling in a "regular" college is that which may advance a person toward a college, university, or professional degree. Schooling that was not obtained in a regular college and schooling from a tutor or through correspondence courses were counted only if the credits obtained were transferable to a regular college. Schooling which is generally regarded as not regular includes that which is given in specialized trade, vocational, or business schools; in on-the-job training; and in correspondence courses. College includes junior or community colleges, regular 4-year colleges, and graduate or professional schools.
Marital Status
This classification refers to the marital status of the person at the time of enumeration. Persons classified as "married" comprise, therefore, both those who have been married only once and those who remarried after having been widowed or divorced. Persons reported as separated (either legally separated or otherwise absent from the spouse because of marital discord) are classified as a subcategory of married persons. The enumerators were instructed to report persons in common-law marriages as married and persons whose only marriage had been annulled as single. Persons "ever married" are those in the categories married (including separated), widowed, and divorced.
The number of married men may be different from the number of married women for an area because of the absence of husbands or wives from the country, because the husband and wife have different places of residence, because of the methods used to inflate the sample data, or for other reasons.

A married person with "spouse present" is a man or woman whose spouse was enumerated as a member of the same household even though he or she may have been temporarily absent on business or vacation, visiting, in a hospital, etc., at the time of enumeration.

Persons whose first marriage was not intact, shown in table 10, include all widowed, separated, and divorced persons, and married persons (other than separated) who had been married more than once. Persons with first marriage intact include, therefore, persons in the marital status classes "Married, spouse present, married once," and "Married, spouse absent (other than separated), married once."
Married Couples
A married couple is a husband and his wife enumerated as members of the same household. The couple may or may not have children living with them. Married couples without own household shown in table 15 are couples in which the husband is not the head of the household.
Household and Relationship to Head of Household
Household
A household consists of all the persons who occupy a housing unit. A house, an apartment or other group of rooms, or a single room, is regarded as a housing unit when it is occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters; that is, when the occupants do not live and eat with any other persons in the structure and there is either (1) direct access from the outside or through a common hall or (2) a kitchen or cooking equipment for the exclusive use of the occupants. A household includes the related family members and also the unrelated persons, if any, such as lodgers, foster children, wards, or employees who share the housing unit.
Relationship to head of household
For married couples without own household, four categories of relationship of the husband to the head of the household are recognized in this report:

1. A son of the head is a child, stepchild, or adopted child of the head.
2. A don-in-law is the husband of the head's daughter, stepdaughter, or adopted daughter.
3. An other relative of the head is a man related to the head of the household by blood, marriage or adoption, but not the head's own son or son-in-law.
4. A nonrelative of the head is any member of the household who is not related to the household head. This category includes lodgers (roomers and partners, relatives of such persons, and foster children) and resident employees (maids, hired farm hands, etc.)
Employment Status
The data on Employment Status relate to the calendar week prior to the date on which the respondents filled their Household Questionnaires or were interviewed by enumerators. This week is not the same for all respondents because not all persons were enumerated during the same week.

Employed persons comprise all civilians 14 years old and over who were either (a)"at work"-those who did any work for pay pr profit, or worked without pay for 15 hours or more on a family farm or in a family business: or (b) were "with a job but not at work"-those who did not work and were not looking for work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent because of bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation, illness, or other personal reasons.

Persons are classified as unemployed if they were 14 years old and over and not "at work" but looking for work. A person is considered as looking for work- not only if lie actually tried to find work but also if he had made such efforts recently (i.e., within the past 60 days) and was awaiting the results of these efforts. Persons waiting to be called, back to a. job from which they had been laid off or furloughed are also counted as unemployed.

The "civilian labor force" includes all persons classified as employed or unemployed, as described, above. The "labor force" also includes members of the Armed Forces (persons on active dirty with the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard).
Occupation
The data on occupation in this report are for employed persons and refer to the job held during the week for which employment, status was reported. For persons employed at two or more jobs, the data refer to the job at which the person worked the greatest number of hours. The occupation statistics presented here are based on the detailed systems developed, for the 1960 Census; see 1960 Census of Population, Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1960.
Income In 1959
Information on income for the calendar year 1959 was requested from all persons 14 years old and over in the sample. "Total income" is the sum of amounts reported separately for wage or salary income, employment income, and other income. Wage or income is defined as the total money earnings received for work performed as an employee. It represents the amount received before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, etc. Self-employment Income is defined as net money income (gross receipts minus operating expenses) from a business, farm, or professional enterprise in which the person was engaged on his own account. Earnings are obtained by summing wage or salary income employment income. Other income includes money income received from such sources as net rents, dividends, Social Security benefits, pension, veterans' payments, unemployment insurance, and public assistance or other governmental payments, and periodic receipts from insurance policies or annuities. Not included as income are money received from the sale of property (unless the recipient was engaged in business of selling such property), the value of income "In kind," withdrawals of bank deposits, money borrowed, tax refunds, and gifts and lump-sum inheritances or insurance payments.

©2024 Social Explorer. All rights reserved.