Some interesting Census data 1940/1950-2010

I was looking up the percentage of farmers to make a reply to an earlier post. Found this Census report/summary. Really interesting to see the changes and numbers. I will just list some high lights that interested me. The link will take you to a PDF file of all of the report/summary.

Total population;
1950- 151.3 million
2010- 308.7 Million

Percentage farming:
1950- 12%
2010- 2%

Median Age:
1940- 29.0
2010- 37.2

Percentage over age 65:
1940-6.8%
2010- 13.0%

Percentage under age 18:
1940- 30.6%
2010- 24.0%
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Marital status Interesting that when you ad divorced and married together the percentage is about the same over the time period. I thought divorced would be higher.)
never married:
1940-33% 2010- 35%

Married:
1940- 61% 2010- 52%

Divorced:
1940- 1% 2010- 10%

Windowed:
1940-12% 2010- 9%
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Population by race: (It is kind of confusing on Hispanics. They are not listed as a percentage in the Race chart. Then on the next page they list the Hispanic percentage of Whites. ??. Also surprised that blacks are not a higher percentage of the total. Maybe mixed race marking white over black on Census???)

White:
1950- 89% 2010 72.4%

Black:
1950-9.8% 2010 12.6%

Hispanic: (This is listed as a percentage of Whites that are of Hispanic origin. data 1970-2010. A little confusing on how the census tracks this. )
1970- 4.5%
2010- 16.3%

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Some economic numbers:

Homeowners ship: (In 2010 only four states under 50% ownership. CA, NY, HI, and NV. The rest are over 60%)
1940- 44%
2010- 65%

Average rent: ( I adjusted the 1940 dollars to 2010 dollars using an inflation calculator. Not sure if that is an accurate way of doing that.)
1940- $42
2010- $855

Percentage of the work force that is government employed:
1940- 8%
2010- 15%

Percentage that is self employed:
1940- 20%
2010- 6%
1940 Census compared to 2010

I wonder if military personnel were considered as government employees in 1940 ?

Bruce I am not sure. If it was the level in 1940 would have been low too. The US actually was very unprepared for war before Peril Harbor. There was some ramping up in 1941 but not as much as you would think with Europe already at war.

I would bet that the standing Armed forces of today could easily be higher then it was in 1940. The depression and WWI made there be little support for military spending.

I got a kick out of your typo re Pearl (Peril) Harbor. Very apropos.

(quoted from post at 14:57:41 12/31/18) Bruce I am not sure. If it was the level in 1940 would have been low too. The US actually was very unprepared for war before Peril Harbor. There was some ramping up in 1941 but not as much as you would think with Europe already at war.

I would bet that the standing Armed forces of today could easily be higher then it was in 1940. The depression and WWI made there be little support for military spending.

Click to expand...

JD is 100% correct. Today there are about 470,000 active duty soldiers. In the summer of 1940 the active Army was about 265,000. Even in 1941 when the Army was allowed to increase it's size it still fell well short of the 8 1/2 million soldiers they would eventually need. Total US army strength, active, NG and reserve in 1941 was about 1,500,000 men.

About 170,000 soldiers today are considered front line combat troops. In 1940 about 177,000 were combat troops. Today's equipment requires a lot more support then it did back then. The 170,000 today actually have much greater abilities because of the newer weapon systems.

Getting back to JD's comment. In 1940 the isolationist movement was alive and well and many Americans thought the war in Europe was a European matter and that we should not get involved.

Rick