Clarification on 1930 San Francisco WARD codes 22–33

USA
1

Hello,

I am using the IPUMS USA 1930 5% sample (us1930b) to study San Francisco County.

My SDA settings are:

  • Row: MBPL
  • Column: WARD
  • Filters: STATEICP(71), COUNTYICP(750)
  • Weight: PERWT

The results include WARD codes 22–33 and 999.

The MBPL=China category is highest for WARD 27, at 5.1%. This means that 5.1% of people in that WARD had mothers born in China;

I am unsure how to interpret this geographically. If WARD 27 corresponds to Assembly District 27, my understanding is that it would be associated more with the Sunset or western part of San Francisco, whereas I would expect the highest share of people with mothers born in China to be concentrated around Chinatown (which is in WARD 32/33) . This makes me wonder whether WARD 27 is actually Assembly District 27, or whether the IPUMS WARD codes refer to a different geography.

The 1930 Census publication lists San Francisco by Assembly Districts 22–33 (Page 57 out of 129):

Could you clarify:

  1. Do IPUMS WARD codes 22–33 correspond to San Francisco’s Assembly Districts 22–33, or are they municipal wards?
  2. How is WARD related to ENUMDIST?
  3. Is there a map, crosswalk, or other source that would allow me to reconstruct the boundaries for this data in 1930?

Thank you,

Harsha

2

While the variable WARD typically corresponds to municipal wards, the original manuscripts for 1930 San Francisco show that when reporting the ward of residence census enumerators identified Assembly Districts (which in California are state-level election districts) rather than municipal wards.

Enumeration districts (ENUMDIST) subdivide Assembly Districts with each enumeration district typically corresponding to an area canvassed by a single census enumerator. You can find the Assembly District that each Enumeration District corresponds to by adding both variables to your data extract and cross tabulating them. I recommend using the GIS files provided through the Urban Transition Historical GIS Project to map 1930 enumeration districts. Another resource that can be helpful is the Steve Morse Unified Census ED Finder, which links to the original Enumeration District maps through Ancestry.com.