Great Plains County-Level Social and Demographic Data, 1870-2000

Decennial data from 1870 to 2000 characterizes populations in 10 of the 12 Great Plains states at the county level. The collection includes selected material from U.S. Census short and long-form surveys, supplemented with vital statistics, religious data, and economic compilations. It covers topics such as population, migration, age, sex, nativity, education, industry, and housing.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term population trends based on decennial census data.
• Studying historical migration patterns using net migration and vital statistics.
• Researching socio-economic changes through industry, education, and housing variables.
• Examining demographic composition via age, sex, nativity, and ancestry columns.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent decennial time series covering 130 years from 1870 to 2000.
• Integrates data from multiple sources including U.S. Census, federal agencies, and manually digitized records.
• Focuses on a specific, defined geographic region (10 Great Plains states) at a detailed county level.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided in the source metadata.
• The dataset covers 10 out of 12 Great Plains states, indicating incomplete coverage of the region.
• The last update date is unknown, which may affect knowledge of the dataset's currency.

Provenance

Source

Myron P. Gutmann, University of Michigan

Collection Method

Extracted from existing digital U.S. Census files and supplemented with manually digitized compilations from federal agencies and private organizations.

Time Range

1870-2000

Geography

County-level data for 10 of the 12 Great Plains states, United States.