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Description

URBAN indicates whether the household's location was urban or rural. The definition of URBAN varies between countries and is only identical for the United States 1880 census and the Canadian 1881 census.

Comparability

Great Britain
For Great Britain 1881, households are defined as urban if they are located in a parish (PARISHGB) with a population density of over 50 persons per acre. This information is available in the variables GB81A011 and GB81B008.

For Great Britain 1851, urban areas are defined as those with a population density of greater than one person per acre. Law (Law, C. M. (1967) "The growth of urban population in England and Wales, 1801-1911," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41: 125-143) gives a density level of one person per acre as one of a number of guides to the distinction between urban and rural. Just over half of the non-institutional population in the 1851 Great Britain sample was living in areas where the population density was greater than one person per acre.

Norway
Households are considered urban if the municipality (MUNICNO) they are located in was a town. However, the boundaries of some towns extended into clearly rural areas at points. Thus, some households classified as urban in Norway may in fact be in areas of low population density with rural characteristics, even though they lie within the administrative boundaries of a town.

United States and Canada
Urban households in the United States and Canada are located in incorporated places of over 2,500 people. See the variable CITY for integrated codes for cities in North America.

NOTE: The Census of 1852 includes Quebec and Ontario provinces. Data covering approximately one-third of the estimated total population and representing many urban centers, including Montreal and Toronto, are missing due to the loss of original manuscripts. Data from the city of Quebec, however, are included in the sample. Users should be cautious about the underrepresentation of urban areas in the 1852 sample.

Census definitions of urban and rural have changed slightly over the years, especially for New England towns and large unincorporated places. For censuses between 1850 and 1880, the urban area is made up for the most part of households in cities and incorporated places with 2,500+ inhabitants. For these U.S. censuses, urban also includes households in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island towns (townships) containing a village or thickly settled area of 2,500 or more inhabitants and comprising, either by itself or when combined with other villages within the same town, more than 50 percent of the total population of the town. Urban areas also include townships and other political subdivisions (not incorporating municipalities) with a total population of 10,000 or more and a population density of 1,000 or more per square mile.

Universe

Availability

• Canada: 1852, 1881
• Great Britain: 1851, 1881, 1881
• Norway: 1865, 1875, 1900
• Sweden: 1900
• United States: 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1880, 1900, 1910