Procedure for Adjusting 1940 Census Data for College Students To Be Comparable with 1950 Data

In 1950 the Bureau of the Census changed its method of enumerating college students. In the census of that year the students were counted as residents of the localities in which they were attending college. This change makes comparisons between 1940 and 1950 census reports on population questionable, particuarly comparisons between those reflecting such factors as migration estimates and extrapolation of population changes for making current population estimates. In connection with the work of the North Central Population Dynamics Technical Committee, NC-18, a procedure for adjusting the 1940 population data to make it comparable with the 1950 data was considered necessary so that the estimates of migration into or out of a geographic area would represent the true change. This paper presents the procedure the author developed for estimating the number of students attending college from the rural and urban areas of each county in a State, based upon the census data, to be used in adjusting the 1940 data. Research work that is being initiated by the Northeast Population Dynamics Technical Committee, NE-17, will include adjustments of the 1940 census data through the use of this procedure. Helen R. White, formerly of the Farm Population and Rural Life Branch, AMS, is to be credited with ideas leading to the procedure. Many suggestions have been received from 'members of the North Central Population Dynamics Technical Committee, especially from Margaret Jarman Hagood and Paul J. Jehlik, Farm Population and Rural Life Branch, AMS, and Henry S. Shryock, Jr., Division of Population and Housing, U. S. Bureau of the Census. The paper is published with the approval of the Director of the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Series Paper No. 629.