Question about using real census data for story settings

I found out that in 1880, about 25% of people in the US had jobs listed as 'laborer' on the census, which surprised me since most fiction set then focuses on farmers or craftsmen - has anyone else dug into old census records for character ideas?

3 comments

3 Comments

miller.rowan1mo ago

I mean, that "laborer" category actually included a lot of farm laborers too.

cora5181mo ago

Right, and that's a huge distinction people miss. When you think of a "laborer" in the 1950s, it's easy to picture someone in a factory or on a construction site, but a massive chunk of them were out in the fields picking crops. That seasonal farm work was brutal, paid even less than industrial jobs, and had almost no protections. So the "laborer" category was this weird mix of steady city work and backbreaking rural work, all lumped together like they were the same thing.

robin6281mo ago

Man, I gotta laugh at this. So basically the census folks just threw everyone who did actual physical work into one big bucket and called it a day. "Yeah, you're a laborer. Whatever, next." Real useful for character building when they lump a guy hauling bricks and a guy hauling himself out of a ditch together like it's the same thing. Classic government categorization. Might as well just name everything "miscellaneous" and save everyone the trouble.