Deciphering Codes use for ICR and MPF Information Appended to the 1950 Census in One Step

Stephen P. Morse, PhD  &  Joel D. Weintraub, PhD

When the 1950 census was taken, persons travelling or living on military bases filled out an Individual Census Report known as an ICR. People who were missed in the census were sometimes tracked down and they would fill out a Missing Person Form known as an MPF. The information on these forms were often handwritten on the final pages of the respective Enumeraton Districts by clerks either in the district office or in Washington DC.

Although the information in various columns of the census sheet is usually an English abbreviation and not a code (e.g., column 10 is the sex and contains M or F), for these added individuals it is in code (1 = Male, 2 = Female). The codes that appear in these various columns are shown here.

To decipher the information, enter the codes from the appropriate census column into the boxes below.


Lettered Columns -- see Deciphering Miscellaneous Codes in One Step

Column 9: Race


Column 10: Sex


Column 12: Marital status


Column 26: Highest school grade attended


Column 31a, 31b, 31c, 32a, 32b, 32c: Money earned


Data presented here comes from
Blog post by Claire Kluskens .
The 1950 Censuses -- How They Were Taken .

© Stephen P. Morse, 2021