Highlights:
- 12th Decennial Census.
- U.S. Population: 76,303,387.
- Cost: $11,854,000.
Questions:
For 1900, the Census Office dropped the "family questionnaire" form style and reverted to filling entire sheets of information on residents. The informations gathered by enumerators for the 1900 census, organized by column, is:
General Population Schedule
- Number of dwelling home in order of visitation by enumerator
- Number of family in order of visitation by enumerator
- Name
- Relation to head of the family
- Color or Race
Enumerators were to mark "W" for White, "B" for Black, "Ch" for Chinese, "Jp" for Japanese, or "In" for American Indian.
- Sex
- Date of Birth
- Age
- Was the person single, married, widowed, or divorced?
- How many years has the person been married?
- For mothers, how many children has the person had?
- How many of those children are living?
- What was the person's place of birth?
- What was the person's father's place of birth?
- What was the person's mother's place of birth?
- What year did the person immigrate to the United States?
- How many years has the person been in the United States?
- Is the person naturalized?
- Occupation, trade, or profession
- How many months has the person not been employed in the past year?
- How many months did the person attend school in the past year?
- Can the person read?
- Can the person write?
- Can the person speak English?
- Is the person's home owned or rented?
- If it is owned, is the person's home owned free or mortgaged?
- Does the person live in a farm or in a house?
- If a person lived on a farm, the enumerator was to write that farm's identification number on its corresponding agricultural questionnaire in this column
Indian Population Schedule
Enumerators were instructed to use a special expanded questionnaire for American Indians living on reservations or in family groups off of reservations. The first 28 questions on the schedule are nearly identical to those asked to the general population. The only difference is that enumerators were instructed to mark "Ration Indian" in the occupation column for those American Indians who were wholly dependent on government aid for support. Enumerators were to mark "R" next to the occupation of those who were partly dependent on government aid. The following additional information, listed by column number, was collected from persons listed on the Indian population schedule:
- Indian Name
- Tribe of this person
- Tribe of this person's father
- Tribe of this person's mother
- Fraction of person's lineage that is white
- Is this person living in polygamy?
- Is this person taxed?
An American Indian was considered "taxed" if he or she was detached from his or her tribe and was living in the White community and subject to general taxation, or had been alloted land by the federal government and thus acquired citizenship.
- If this person has acquired American citizenship, what year?
- Did this person acquire citizenship by receiving an allotment of land from the federal government?
- Is this person's house "movable" or "fixed?"
Enumerators were to mark "movable" if the person lived in a tent, tepee, or other temporary structure; they were to mark "fixed" if he or she lived in a permanent dwelling of any kind.