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County Coding in the Annual Survey of Manufactures of the 1950s

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  • Randy A. Becker

Abstract

A recent examination of newly recovered files containing establishment-level data from the 1953, 1955, and 1956 Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) revealed an unfamiliar and undocumented county coding system, unlike the ones that came to be used (and documented) in the 1960s and beyond. In particular, I discovered that these early county codes were only ever comprised of three nondecreasing digits, except for some counties in the state of Texas. After noting that counties appear to have been assigned codes in within-state alphabetical order, using a list of county (and county equivalents) in existence at the time, and by matching the 1956 ASM establishments to their 1963 Census of Manufactures data, I was able to derive and validate the underlying coding scheme, including for the anomalous states of Texas and Virginia. This paper describes my methodology and presents a spreadsheet of 3,104 counties that relates the 1950s county codes, county name, and the county codes used in the Economic Censuses of the 1960s. The significance of a code with nondescreasing digits is also discussed. In particular, such a code was employed to enhance error detection – specifically, the transposition of digits during key punching.

Suggested Citation

  • Randy A. Becker, 2009. "County Coding in the Annual Survey of Manufactures of the 1950s," CES Technical Notes Series 09-01, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:tnotes:09-01
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    Cited by:

    1. Randy Becker & Cheryl Grim, 2011. "Newly Recovered Microdata on U.S. Manufacturing Plants from the 1950s and 1960s: Some Early Glimpses," Working Papers 11-29, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

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    Keywords

    ASM; CMF;

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