early census buckets

The 1790–1840 Federal censuses do not show all people in the household, but only the head of household and a count of people by gender, by race or free/slave, and in certain age ranges. The racial and free/slave divisions will be ignored here since they rarely matter to me. The gender divisions mean only that all age buckets are for males then repeated the same for females, excepting in 1790 in 1820.

The head of household is included in the counts.

The provides a handy list of buckets by year, and inferred birth years.

1790

This census has the most asymmetric treatment of males and females.

Males 16+Males <16Females
bef 17741774–1790

1800, 1810, & 1820-females

<1010–1516–2526–4445+
18001790–18001784–17901774–17841755–1774bef 1755
18101800–18101794–18001784–17941765–1784bef 1765
1820 ♀1810–18201804–18101794–18041775–1794bef 1775

1820 males

In 1820 an additional bucket for males 16–18 was added (to assess military capacity). Males thus may appear twice, as both 16–18 and 16–25. So, by convention I subtract the former from the latter to create a 19–25 bucket.

<1010–1516–1819–2526–4445+
1820 ♂1810–18201804–18101801–18041794–18011775–1794bef 1775

1830 and 1840

<55–910–1415–1920s30s
18301825–18301820–18251815–18201810–18151800–18101790–1800
18401835–18401830–18351825–18301820–18251810–18201800–1810
40s50s60s70s80s90s100+
18301780–17901770–17801760–17701750–17601740–17501730–1740bef 1730
18401790–18001780–17901770–17801760–17701750–17601740–1750bef 1740

Galen’s family resources wiki

Snapshotted 2025-04-10 06:50:14 UTC
    from commit 7c9e7d1c (143).

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