The Reliability of the Census: Evaluating the Accuracy of Information

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Two Records, One Person?

In the course of your research into a World War II Veteran, you may encounter a common problem: You find two records that might both describe the person you are researching. However, these two records disagree on a key detail. What could explain the difference?

Different People

You have actually found two different people.

Diagram showing two sources pointing at different people

Category Mismatch

These sources classify something (e.g., race or ethnicity) differently.

Diagram showing two sources pointing at the same person but classing them differently

Incorrect or Imprecise

One or both sources are wrong (or otherwise imprecise).

Diagram showing two sources pointing at the same person but both are wrong

Understanding the context of each record may help you determine if you are dealing with one person or two.

Concerns with False Information

Was the census always accurate? Not necessarily. For example, informants might have lied. The 1940 Census Instructions addressed this possibility, telling census workers:

Text from Census Instructions discussing what to do if somebody was untruthful

Bureau of the Census, Instructions to Enumerators: Population and Agriculture (1940), p. 4.

Untruthful Replies.—You have a right not only to an answer, but to a truthful answer. Do not accept any statement that you believe to be false. Where you know that the answer is incorrect, enter upon the schedule the correct answer as nearly as you can ascertain it.

Judging Truthfulness

A good approach? The Census Instructions empowered census workers to decide what information was or wasn’t true. However, census workers were human beings. They might not always have been right. And they may have had biases that incorrectly led them to believe certain people were dishonest.

Cartoon by P. Web with the message "It's OK Boys. You can tell him everything...He's the Census Man!" in Benton and Bowles, Inc., Advertising Campaign for the 1950 United States Census. 1950. (National Archives)

Cartoon of hillbillies with guns looking at an emotionless census taker.
Political cartoon with Uncle Sam speaking to embodiment of US House of Representatives.

Explaining Differences

Source of Error: An informant provided information. The census worker evaluated that information. Both people were possible sources of bad information. The point here is not to say that everything in the census is outright false. Rather, it may help explain why censuses from two different years could describe the same person in different ways.

Cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman of Uncle Sam saying to the embodiment of the House of Representatives, “About Time to Measure Yourself Again?” Washington Evening Star, December 18, 1920. (National Archives)