U. S. Urban History
History 304/504

Professor Mark Tebeau
Rhodes Tower 1906
216 687 3937
Cleveland State University
Spring Semester 2006
MC 105
M/W/F 9:45-10:50

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Last Modified: 27-Jan-2006

 
Using the Census

The University of Virginia has developed an excellent resource for using the census online, the Historical United States Census Data Browser.

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History has an excellent series of essays about immigration and migration to the Cleveland region, some of which contain data. CSU's The Northern Ohio Data and Information Service or NODIS, has information on the region's population in 1990 and 2000, as does the Mandel School at CWRU, which has a "Can Do" database that possesses much information on Cuyahoga County by neighborhood from 1980 through 2000. I have a table of census data for Ohio, Cuyahoga County, and townships for the period from 1860-1900. It is delineated into a number of categories and although hardly comprehensive past students have found it useful. It is formatted as an excel document.

The United States Census Bureau also includes historical data on its website, see for example:
The United States Census Bureau, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990"
The United States Census Bureau, Selected Historical Decennial Census
Population and Housing Counts


For more data on the population of small areas within Cleveland from 1930 to the present, use the census materials available at the reference desk in CSU's library. Making sense of tract and block level data can be difficult, and the University of North Carolina libraries has a primer on using these guides. SEE http://www.lib.unc.edu/reference/govinfo/census/smallhist.html

For a more exhaustive list of documents and materials related to the census, including many online sources, see American Library Association Government Documents Round Table, Government Information Technology Committee's report on the Historical Census. (They also have a "Census 2000 Toolkit".)

1        Prepare for Class Discussion

  • Be prepared to answer the following questions:
  • Use the Historical United States Census Data Browser to consider the issues involved in using the census as a source in your projects; also begin think about what these numbers tell you and do not tell you.
  • What are the challenges of using this website? What other information do you need to know in order to make the census useful to your study? What sorts of things might you ask? What strategies should you adopt in using census data?
  • Finally, be prepared to discuss the census as a historical source.

2        Prepare a data table of population that helps to understand migration and immgration to Tremont

***** Assignment ******
Create a table of population for the following years: 1880, 1900, 1920, 1930, 1950, 1970;Determine the following: Total Population; Total Population, foreign born; Total Population of an ethnic group associated with your site or with Tremont (i.e. Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Lemkos, etc.); Total Population of African Americans. Figure percentages of the total for each of those groups.

Procedure:

  • Create a base table for the state of Ohio
  • Create a comparative table for Cuyahoga County
  • Create another comparative table of the population of Cleveland, using the printed census for the same years
  • Create another comparative table of the population of Tremont, using the printed census at the Tract Level (Tract D7 or D8), for the same years.

Bring two copies of your results to class, one to hand in for me and one that you can use to take notes. Also, I recommend putting your results in a simple excel spreadsheet.

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