Description

AGEMONTH reports the age, in months, of persons less than one year old (AGE = 0) on census day. For the 1910 U.S. Census, the 1920 U.S. and Puerto Rican Censuses and the 1930 U.S. Census, AGEMONTH also reports the age in months of persons beyond one year of age. Users should consult the Comparability tab for more details.

Comparability

For the 1910 U.S. Census, the 1920 U.S. and Puerto Rican Censuses and the 1930 U.S. Census, AGEMONTH also reports the age in months of persons beyond one year of age. In the 1910 U.S. Census sample (when the age in months of one-year-olds is reported), an 18-month-old would be coded 1 in AGE and 6 in AGEMONTH; a 6-month-old would also be coded 6 in AGEMONTH, but would be coded 0 in AGE. The 1920 and 1930 samples contain AGEMONTH information for persons up to 4 years old. For this reason, AGEMONTH must be used alongside the AGE variable in these years.

Most users who analyze the AGEMONTH over the long-term will want to select only persons for whom AGE = 0, to achieve comparability across years.

Age in months was originally recorded as a fraction of a year on the census form. The enumerator instructions suggest that the response be recorded as some number over 12, but the frequency distributions indicate that some enumerators recorded it as a rounded number (often as "1/2," coded in the samples as 6 months--the most common code in all years) instead of the exact figure. Enumerators in 1850-1880 recorded children who were under one month old as one month old. Respondents often rounded up the ages of eleven-month-olds to age 1.

BIRTHMO and BIRTHQTR can be used to create information for 1950, 1960, 1970, and 1980 that is roughly the same as that yielded by AGEMONTH.

Universe

Availability

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• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1960: --
• 1950: --
• 1940: All samples
• 1930: All samples
• 1920: All samples
• 1910: All samples
• 1900: All samples
• 1880: All samples
• 1870: All samples
• 1860: All samples
• 1850: All samples

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• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1930: All samples
• 1920: All samples
• 1910: All samples

Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.