Uniquely identifying census enumeration districts using county in historical censuses

USA
1

Hello

I have a question about the use of the ENUMDIST variable in the 1910 full-count census, which I am trying to match to data from Morse and Weintraub’s Unified Census ED Finder. According to the description, ENUMDIST must be read together with SUPDIST to uniquely identify enumeration districts within the same state. I was wondering whether it would be possible to combine ENUMDIST with STATEICP and COUNTYICP in 1910, since I understand that COUNTYICP would be more disaggregated than SUPDIST, and that counties were wholly contained inside supervisor districts.

In other words, is there any reason why I cannot combine COUNTYICP and ENUMDIST to uniquely identify an enumeration district within a given state? I would be grateful for any advice.

Thank you for your help.

Christian

2

You are correct that SUPDIST is not available in the full count file for 1910. Combining ENUMDIST with STATEICP and COUNTYICP is appropriate for uniquely identifying enumeration districts in the full count 1910 data. The IPUMS USA team is planning to review existing enumeration district documentation in the next year or two; I will share with them that the current information about 1910 reflects the sample data but not the full count file.

3

Hi Kari - thanks for confirming this.

Christian

1 Like