The 1940 Census is
Coming Soon—Free!

Archives.com's parent company Inflection has partnered with the National Archives to provide the public with free digital access to the 1940 Federal Population Census on April 2, 2012.

Overview of the 1940 Census

The 1940 Federal Population Census will be released by the National Archives (NARA) April 2, 2012. This is due to the 72 year restriction which prevents public access to the census records before this period. Archives.com has partnered with NARA to make the 1940 Census available digitally and free to the public on April 2nd.

Archives.com is thrilled to have been chosen by NARA for this important project.

Information found in the 1940 Census

Questions asked on the 1940 Census include many found in previous census years, and several new ones as well. For each person recorded in the census you'll find a name, personal description, address, details about their family, education, place of birth (of self and parents), citizenship, employment status, occupation, veteran status, and more.

To learn more, the National Archives has published a complete list of the questions asked on the 1940 Census.

Accessing the 1940 Census on April, 2 2012

The 1940 Census images will be available at 9:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time) April, 2, 2012. Access to the images will be available on any computer with internet access, and will not require payment or registration. The name of the website created to host the images will be announced at a later date. (stay tuned!)

How to search the 1940 Census

On April 2nd, researchers will be able to search by address, Enumeration District (ED), and geographic location. Researchers will be able to browse images by ED number directly, or use address or geographic information to locate the appropriate census schedule.

At launch, a name index will not be available. Archives.com plans to provide its members access to a fully searchable name index on its website in 2012.