When was the 1950 census released?

April 1, 2022, after the 72-year rule. The index was built by machine and corrected by volunteers, so a name that cannot be found may be misread in the index; browse the enumeration district instead.

What are the questions at the bottom of the 1950 sheet?

Supplementary questions for people on the sample lines: parents' birthplaces, highest grade and school attendance, residence a year earlier, income, and for men, military service in the two world wars.

Record columns

Reading the 1950 US census, column by column

The 1950 schedule, released in 2022, is the newest page a researcher can read. It is shorter than 1940 — twenty columns on the main line — in ballpoint and pencil, and one person in five landed on a sample line and answered further questions about parents' birthplaces, education, income and military service. The codes are written out more than in earlier decades.

Date: April 1, 1950
Columns: 18
Handwriting: Ballpoint and pencil in a plain school hand; the enumerator's form filled in small boxes, so letters are cramped rather than flourished.

The columns in order

The 18 columns of the 1950 US census in the order they are printed, and what the clerk wrote in each.
#	Column	What it holds
1	Street	Street name, written vertically down the margin and dittoed.
2	House no.	House number as posted; blank in rural districts.
3	Serial no.	Running count of dwelling units in order of visitation.
4	Lives on farm	Yes or No.
5	Name	Surname first, then given name; the surname is often written once and dittoed for the rest of the family. Spelled as the enumerator heard it.
6	Relationship to head	Head, Wife, Son, Dau (daughter), Mother, Father, Sis, Bro, Boarder, Lodger, Servant, Hired man, Son-in-law, Grandson, Adopted dau, Partner, Inmate.
7	Race	W, Neg, Ind, Jap, Chi, Fil, and in 1950 a written-out word.
8	Sex	M or F.
9	Age	Age at last birthday, as given by whoever answered the door. Infants in fractions ("2/12" is two months). Treat every age as within five years.
10	Marital status	S single, M married, W widowed, D divorced; 1910 adds M1 first marriage, M2 second or later; 1950 writes Mar, Nev (never married), Wd, D, Sep.
11	Birthplace	A state or a country, as the enumerator wrote it: "Ohio", "Ireland", "Prussia", "Bohemia". Pre-1900 abbreviations are frequent (Pa, O, Va, Ind).
12	Naturalized	Yes, No, or AP (first papers) in 1950, asked of the foreign-born.
13	At work last week	Yes or No; 1940 and 1950 ask about the week before the census.
14	Seeking work	Yes or No.
15	Hours worked	Hours worked in the week before the census.
16	Occupation	As stated; "keeping house", "at home", "farm laborer", "none". Children "at school". A blank is a blank, not "none".
17	Industry	The kind of business, paired with the occupation: "salesman" / "dry goods store".
18	Class of worker	W wage worker, E employer, OA own account, NP unpaid family worker (1930: W, E, O, NP; 1950: P private, G government, O own business, NP).

What to watch for on this form

Marital status: Mar, Nev (never married), Wd, D, Sep.
Class of worker: P private employer, G government, O own business, NP without pay on a family farm or business.
Sample lines: six per sheet, with questions at the foot of the page for the person on that line.
Naturalized: Yes, No or AP (first papers), asked only of the foreign-born.

Abbreviations and marks

do / " / „ — ditto — the same as the line above
Hd — head of household
Wf — wife
Dau — daughter
S-in-L — son-in-law
Bdr — boarder
Svt — servant
Na / Pa / Al — naturalized / first papers / alien
O / R — home owned / rented
F / M — free of mortgage / mortgaged
W / B / Mu — white / black / mulatto in the color column
S / M / W / D — single / married / widowed / divorced
x, / , 1 — a tick in a yes/no column
2/12 — two months old
Pa, O, Va, Ind, Ky — state abbreviations in the birthplace column

Rows to CSV

Type one person per line with cells separated by a tab or a |, in the column order above. Blank cells may be left empty; write [illegible] where you cannot read. The CSV is built by the same code the app uses for its export.

Rows

Questions

When was the 1950 census released?: April 1, 2022, after the 72-year rule. The index was built by machine and corrected by volunteers, so a name that cannot be found may be misread in the index; browse the enumeration district instead.
What are the questions at the bottom of the 1950 sheet?: Supplementary questions for people on the sample lines: parents' birthplaces, highest grade and school attendance, residence a year earlier, income, and for men, military service in the two world wars.

About this page

Column lists follow the printed schedule or register form; descriptions are in our own words from the National Archives' census instructions to enumerators, the FamilySearch Research Wiki and the usual parish-register handbooks. This is the same column list Cursive Lens reads the page against; a test in the app fails if the two ever disagree. Last reviewed 2026-10-17.