United States Census of 1850 - IPUMS Subset

United States, 1850

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Reference ID

USA_1850_PHC_v01_M_v7.5_A_IPUMS

Producer(s)

Department of the Interior, IPUMS

Metadata

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Created on

Sep 03, 2025

Last modified

Sep 03, 2025

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Literacy (US1850A_LIT)

Data file: USA1850_PHC-P-H

Overview

Type: Discrete

Start: 273

End: 273

Width: 1

Range: -

Format: Numeric

Questions and instructions

Literal question

<svar a="all" v="US50A439">12. ____ Persons over 20 years of age who cannot read and write.<br /></svar>

Categories

Value	Category
1	No, illiterate (cannot read nor write)
4	Yes, literate (reads and writes)
8	Unknown, illegible or blank
9	NIU (not in universe)

Warning: these figures indicate the number of cases found in the data file. They cannot be interpreted as summary statistics of the population of interest.

Description

Definition

This variable indicates whether the respondent could read and write in any language.
A single question was used to identify persons who could not both read and write in any language; therefore, it is not possible to identify people who could only read or write.

Universe

United States 1850 (100%): Persons age 20+

concept

Concept

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