A Note on Remarriage Reporting in the 1910 U.S. Census

Abstract

The quality of remarriage reporting among native-born whites in the 1910 United States Census is assessed using indirect demographic estimation techniques and vital statistics on divorce. Specifically, I compare the reports of remarriage in the census with estimates based on the extent of widowhood and divorce. After adjusting for possible levels of underreporting of divorce in the census, I estimate that the reports of remarriage among native- born whites in the 1910 census are underreported by less than 5 percent through age 49. At older ages, however, the underreporting rises to 9 percent among women and up to 21 percent among men. In the process of validating the remarriage reports in the census, I calculate the proportion of the divorced and widowed population who remarry, information that is not available directly from the census. These estimates can be used as a baseline for studies of remarriage in the U.S. in the twentieth century.