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The United States Census of 2020, just officially completed last week, will likely go down in history as one that posed great difficulty for the enumerators. The year saw the worst pandemic in a century, as well as natural disasters such as wildfires, floods and hurricanes, to say nothing of the controversies over who should be counted and when the counting should end.
				As genealogists well know, however, it&rsquo;s not the first census to generate a lot of buzz in the press for one reason or another.
				Let&rsquo;s take a look at a census that really raised some hackles &#8211; that of 1920, exactly a century ago. This is the first in an occasional series looking at key dates in the history of the U.S. census.
				Genealogists have been studying the personal information in this census for many years, but many of them probably have been unaware of just how controversial it was in its time. That census was hotly debated for years after it appeared, and it finally sparked legislation that governs us today.
				Here&rsquo;s what happened. For all its history up through the early 20th century, America was a largely agrarian nation. Most people lived on farms or in small towns and villages. Thanks to industrialism and improved transportation, though, cities began growing like wildfire in the late 1800s, becoming magnets for job seekers both native-born and immigrant.
				This shift finally came to a very angry head. When the figures from the Census of 1920 were unveiled, they revealed a new reality &#8211; one that greatly upset some people. The total population of the United States had topped 106 million, but the big revelation was that the rural and urban populations were now about equal, and the traditional dominance of rural interests in American public life was about to end.
				Political leaders whose base was rural America quickly grew alarmed. Their strongest action was to force a delay in use of the new census for the traditional decennial reapportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives, thus preserving their power.
				In fact, the 1920 census was firmly sidetracked and never did get used for reapportionment. It was not until the end of the decade that America finally had a law mandating that from now on the census would be the legal determinant for congressional reapportionment, with no more delays. The first census to be used under this law would be that of 1930.
				By that time, it was obvious that America had become a nation of city dwellers. Today, an estimated two percent of our people live on farms.
				Update: Here&rsquo;s a recap of where the census stands vis-&#224;-vis today&rsquo;s genealogists.
				The Census of 2020, just concluded, will generate endless reports on areas like population, agriculture and manufacturing over the next decade. These figures will help guide public policy and business decisions.
				The personal information on people, though &#8211; names, addresses, occupations, etc. that genealogists crave &#8211; will be subject to the 72-year rule and will not be available until April of 2092.
				The next census whose personal information will become available is that of 1950, with the 72-year rule expiring in April of 2022. That census will likely show the large internal movements of people and their job changes in the wake of World War II and should prove highly valuable to genealogists.
				Libraries, historical societies and genealogical societies will be able to help you get a copy. So will the various online genealogy sites.

Out on a Limb: 1920 census raised some hackles