THE CENSUS GOV : 1950 CENSUS : UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU The questions asked on a census change and, as experience allows us to rethink how to enumerate and deal with increasing population, workers are retrained. They may also seek out populations not previously counted.
A CENSUS intends to provide a valuable statistical analysis, implied is in order for individuals, politicians, and governmental agencies - such as schools - to get funding using those statistics.
THIS SITE GIVES AN OVERVIEW OF EVERY UNITED STATES CENSUS.
You learn which states and territories were counted.
What about people who belong to a family group but are not living there at the time, such as military personnel and college students?
THIS CENSUS INCLUDED "TRANSIENTS"
What is a Transient? During the previous Great Depression era, a transient was thought to be a man, a hobo or bum, someone riding the rails, a person who did not live in a stable residence or with a family. Assumptions were that the person was alcoholic.
Then during the Great Depression so very many people were living in poverty, it wasn't at all unusual for families who were unable to afford rent to move in with others or keep moving houses. A single woman would usually take work as a live-in maid or nanny or find herself living in a home run by a religious group. Some turned to prostitution.
In 1950? The United States is having a good economy. Veterans use the GI bill to buy houses on low interest loans. Veterans of World War II are considered to be honorable people and employers hire them. The notion of who was a transient changed. because there was so much more opportunity.
Besides those who fit the definition of homeless today, those living in a mobile home/ camper were considered transient. If you were living in a hotel or a place like the YMCA, you were also considered transient though maybe you were just a person who was trying to move to a big city while on a budget and looking for work.
In order to try and count these people in three visits, the night of April 11th, the morning of April 12th, and the night of April 13th, 1950, were used to go out and find transients. The enumerators were to go to campgrounds and 'missions' and boarding houses and basically seek out any place a person without a stable residence might live.
A special INDIVIDUAL CENSUS REPORT FORM (ICR) was used and this form was FILLED OUT BY THE INDIVIDUAL RATHER THAN THE CENSUS TAKER. So if you know or sense that an individual is missing from a family group, this may be where to find them.
Today many people in my city are living in vehicles that do not have the features of a mobile home such as a place to lay down properly or a toilet. I don't believe they were counted - or wanted to be counted - in this last homeless census, the 2020. Some people prefer their independence from the restrictions of shelters. Every library I go to has a good number of people coming in who are homeless, sheltering for as long as they can where there is protection from the weather and toilets. Every coffee house I go to also has people who spend many hours there, often with laptops, who are transient, and for the price of a coffee or a little nibble, are also sheltering. (I do wonder about local homeless counts, a separate census.)
Additionally, in the 1950 census Americans who were on ships, employees of the government in other countries such as at embassies, and Americans who were ex-pats (when cooperative) were counted.
EXCERPT: Americans abroad were enumerated for the first time in 1950. Provisions were made to count members of the armed forces, crews of vessels, and employees of the United States government living in foreign countries, along with any members of their families also abroad. This enumeration was carried out through cooperative arrangements with the departments of Defense and State, the United States Maritime Administration and other federal agencies that took responsibility for distributing and collecting specially designed questionaries.
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