THE GREAT DEPRESSION – USING CENSUS DATA TO ADDRESS AN ECONOMIC CRISIS

STUDENT VERSION

Activity Items

The following items are part of this activity and appear at the end of this student version.

• Item 1: Unemployment Census Photo
• Item 2: Map of the United States Showing Geographic Divisions: 1937
• Item 3: Percentage of the Population 15 to 74 Years of Age in Enumerative Check Areas Unemployed (Including Emergency Workers) and Partly Unemployed, by Sex, for Geographic Divisions: 1937

Student Learning Objectives

• I will be able to analyze map data on U.S. unemployment in 1937 and explain why collecting this kind of data mattered during the Great Depression (a severe, decade-long economic downturn), even in years when the regular national census wasn't being conducted.
• I will be able to formulate a position on the New Deal—President Franklin D. Roosevelt's set of programs designed to combat the Depression—and support it with specific data.

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Introduction

As part of the 1930 census—the regular nationwide population count that happens every ten years, conducted just as the Great Depression was beginning—people were asked about their employment status. If someone hadn't worked on the day before the count, they had to answer follow-up questions: Could they work? Were they looking for a job? How long had they been out of work? Why were they unemployed?

But lawmakers and government officials needed more data, and they needed it more often, to fully grasp how severe the crisis was and to justify funding the New Deal. So in 1937, three years before the next scheduled census, the Census Bureau conducted two separate unemployment surveys. The first was voluntary and self-reported, mailed to every home in the country. The second, called the Enumerative Check Census, went to about 510,000 households and marked the first attempt to estimate nationwide unemployment using a random sample—a smaller group chosen to represent the whole population. The Census Bureau selected these sample areas by postal route, skipping business districts. However, this approach accidentally left out the 18 percent of Americans who didn't live along a postal route, making the results less accurate than hoped. (See Item 1: Unemployment Census Photo for context.)

Although the voluntary survey reached every household, it ended up underreporting the true unemployment rate. The Enumerative Check Census—the sample-based survey—actually produced a more accurate national estimate.

The 1940 census was the first regular national count to use statistical sampling. This method allowed the Census Bureau to ask a random slice of the population—about 5 percent—a set of extra, more detailed questions beyond the standard census questionnaire, without dramatically raising costs or burdening every household. The Bureau then used the answers from that sample to estimate demographic data for the entire country.

Sampling remained a standard part of the census throughout the rest of the 20th century: a portion of the population was always asked to complete longer, more detailed questionnaires. Today, the Census Bureau continues this practice through the American Community Survey, which it conducts every month.

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1. At the time of the 1930 Census—considering the widespread impact of the 1929 stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression—why might people have hesitated to share their employment status with a census worker who visited them in person?

1. What were the advantages and disadvantages of collecting unemployment data in 1937, in between the regular 1930 and 1940 censuses?

1. What were the advantages and disadvantages of asking a random sample of the population extra questions beyond those on the standard census form?

1. Look at Item 2 (the map of U.S. geographic divisions in 1937) and Item 3 (the data on unemployment percentages by region and sex). Which region or regions of the country had the highest percentages of total unemployment for both men and women?

1. Which region likely needed the least New Deal funding? Use data from Item 3 to explain your answer.

1. Imagine you're a member of Congress in 1938, and President Roosevelt is requesting more money for the New Deal. Using data from Item 3 along with what you know about this period in history, make an argument either for or against increasing New Deal funding.

1. Which New Deal programs launched between 1930 and 1940 could have benefited from unemployment statistics like these?

1. Besides employment, what other topics would have been useful to include in the census sample survey to help lawmakers better understand how the Great Depression was affecting American families?

1. What kinds of questions do you think should be included in today's American Community Survey to track important trends among the U.S. population right now?

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Item 1: Unemployment Census Photo

Census Bureau Director William L. Austin and Unemployment Census Director John D. Biggers supervise the receipt and check-in of questionnaires from the 1937 unemployment census, November 24, 1937.

www.census.gov/history/www/sights_sounds/photos/1930_photos.php#
Click the link above to view the photo gallery online.

Item 2: Map of the United States Showing Geographic Divisions: 1937

archive.org/stream/censusofpartiale04bigg#page/76/mode/2up
Click the link above to view the original map.

Item 3: Percentage of the Population 15 to 74 Years of Age in Enumerative Check Areas Unemployed (Including Emergency Workers) and Partly Unemployed, by Sex, for Geographic Divisions: 1937

archive.org/stream/censusofpartiale04bigg#biggpage/78/mode/2up
Click the link above to view the original maps.