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Description

INSANE identifies persons who were considered "insane", as contemporaries understood that term. More on the disability status of an individual can be found in the DISABIL variable. 

Comparability

This variable is available for Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. For Sweden and Iceland this variable was derived from the disability variable.

It is important to note that this variable is not integrated for Norway. The Norwegian census does not distinguish between insanity and learning disabilities; both are combined under "mental disease", which can be found under the DISABIL variable. Norway is included here to alert researchers that there is a closely related variable available.

Iceland has an 'unknown' category in addition to 'yes' and 'no' unlike Sweden and the United States.

The United States 1860 instructions to enumerators stated that a person institutionalized for insanity should be so labeled, but someone "competent to manage his or her business affairs without manifesting any symptoms of insanity to an ordinary observer" should not be. "As a general rule," these instructions continued, "the term Insanity applies to individuals who once possessed mental faculties which have become impaired," not to persons suffering a mental disability from birth. 

Universe

Availability

• Iceland: 1901
• Sweden: 1900
• United States: 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880