"Inmates of institutions" comprise those persons in certain types of group quarters who are under care or custody. These types are described in detail in the following section. Thus, staff members of institutions and their families are excluded, as are persons in some, types of group quarters, such as convents and monasteries, college dormitories, and boarding schools, who in some other contexts have been regarded as members of the institutional population. Within this General framework, the persons treated in the 1960 Census as inmates of institutions have been selected on the basis of three considerations.

The first of these considerations relates to the question of whether or not the institution is of a type where. the average length of stay is rather long and in which a relatively large proportion of the persons cannot be regarded as having a usual residence elsewhere. Thus, patients in hospitals for mental disease are treated as inmates; but, for the most part, patients in General hospitals are not.

The second of these considerations relates to the demand for statistics, on the part of administrators and social scientists in the fields of health, welfare, and correction. For example, statistics on prisoners have some relevance to the problem of crime and the administration of criminal justice, and those on inmates of mental institutions have some relation to the problem of mental disease. On the basis of this consideration, persons under custody in institutions such as Jails, juvenile detention homes, and diagnostic and reception centers are classified as inmates of institutions, even though many of the inmates may be there for only a short while. Also included are the relatively few patients in General hospitals who could be identified as receiving care for mental, tubercular, or chronic disease conditions, even though the patients may be there for only a short while before discharge or transfer to an institution providing long-range care. Similarly, students in residential schools for the physically handicapped are included as inmates, even though students in other types of residential primary and secondary schools are considered to have their usual residence away from the school. Likewise, in an effort to obtain a more complete coverage of elderly persons and of persons suffering from chronic illness, persons under care in small nursing and convalescent homes are included as inmates of institutions.

To some extent, the decision as to whether persons in certain types of institutions (such as jails, detention homes, and nursing homes for the aged) should be recorded as residing in the institution or in their own homes was based on such considerations as where they could most readily be enumerated.

The third consideration relates to whether or not the institution is of such a type that most of the inmates are not employable in any immediate sense. For census purposes, inmates of an institution are regarded as not in the labor force. Armed Forces mental hospitals and Armed Forces correctional facilities are excluded from the places classified as institutions. Convents, monasteries, and similar places where many of the residents are in the labor force are also excluded from the places classified as institutions.

In the 1950 Census, the definition of "Inmate of Institution" was similar to that used here but, for several reasons, the 1960 Census count of inmates has broader coverage than in 1950. In the 1940 Census, also, the definition of "Inmate of Institution" was similar to that used here. However, in the 1940 Census fewer precautions were employed to insure Accuracy of the Data on Inmates than were employed in the 1960 and 1950 Censuses.

The figures on number of inmates shown in this report and those in Volume I, chapters C and D, all of which are based on a 25-percent sample, differ somewhat from those shown on a complete-count basis in Volume I, chapter B. (See table A below.) The complete-count figures shown in Volume I, chapter B, were not usually edited to take into account errors of enumerators in classifying persons as inmates who were not inmates, and vice versa. In contrast, the sample figures shown in this report and in Volume I, chapters C and D, were subject to Editing during the General coding operation and the computer edits. In accordance with these Editing procedures, whenever it was determined that the enumerator had classified inmates as noninmates or vice versa, corrections were made so that the computer would tally the proper entries.

Table A. Comparison of Complete-Count and 25-Percent Sample Data for Inmates of Institutions, For the United States, Urban and Rural, By Color, and For Regions: 1960

Area and color	Complete count	25-percent sample	Ratio of 25-percent sample to complete count
UNITED STATES
Total	1,897,106	1,886,967	.995
White	1,584,466	1,581,281	.998
Nonwhite	312,640	305,686	.978
Urban	1,126,293	1,110,328	.986
White	967,847	959,174	.991
Nonwhite	158,446	151,154	.954
Rural	770,813	776,639	1.008
White	616,619	622,107	1.009
Nonwhite	154,194	154,532	1.002
REGIONS
Northeast	557,888	555,919	.996
North Central	540,680	551,643	1.020
South	511,341	495,562	.969
West	287,197	283,843	.988

During the processing of the 1960 Census Series PHG(1) reports for census tracts, it was possible to make comparisons between the complete-count and sample numbers for "unrelated individuals" and to check enumeration records for tracts with relatively large in-consistencies to determine whether inmates had been improperly classified. Some errors were discovered. Most of these were in the complete-count statistics and are noted wherever possible in the List of Corrections to Volume I, or in footnotes in the reports on census tracts. A very few errors of classification were made in the sample processing; most of these are footnoted in the Volume I chapter C reports. It was not feasible to include corrections in the detailed tables of the present report for errors made in the sample processing. However, appendix tables in the present report show corrected data on inmates for those areas where classification errors were found in the sample data during census tract review. Where there are differences in the number of inmates for individual places and counties between the sample statistics in table 52 of this report and complete-count statistics in corresponding tables of Volume I, chapter B, the statistics in this report are Generally to be preferred as being more nearly accurate.

Many of the types of institutions shown for 1960 are the same as those shown for 1950. However, certain new types of institutions have been distinguished for the first time in 1960, some other types have been subcategorized, and the definitions of some types have been changed. Also, the fact that the classification of inmates in 1960 was more often based on the nature of the ward or service in which the inmate was located than was true in 1950 may have introduced some incomparability between the 1960 and earlier counts of inmates by type of institution. The types of institutions distinguished for the first time in 1960 are residential treatment centers and diagnostic and reception centers. The majority of the institutions of each of these types were founded after the 1950 Census had been taken. Those residential treatment centers which were enumerated in 1950 were generally included under the category of private training schools for juvenile delinquents, whereas diagnostic and reception centers enumerated in 1950 were included under public training schools for juvenile delinquents.

The major change in sub-classification since 1950 is the division of homes for the aged and dependent by known presence of "nursing care. A similar classification was attempted from the 1950 data but was not completed because it was decided that such a classification could not be made reliably on the basis of information then available. The second change in sub-classification since 1950 is the division of homes and schools for the physically handicapped into those for the blind, the deaf, and other physically handicapped persons.

The changes in definition since 1950 are relatively minor and to a considerable extent are direct results of the introduction of new categories. The definition of "detention homes" has been changed to exclude those homes serving primarily to provide temporary care for dependent and neglected children. Correspondingly, the definition of homes for dependent and neglected children has been broadened to include some places formerly categorized as detention homes. Finally, the definition of public training schools for juvenile delinquents has been changed to exclude the diagnostic and reception centers, and that of private training schools has been changed to exclude the residential treatment centers.

In an attempt to insure the Accuracy of the Data shown in this report, the classification of places as institutions and the classification of institutions by type was performed largely through the use of lists drawn up in advance of the census enumeration. The preparation of these lists involved the collation of all available lists of institutions, the preparation by other government agencies of lists of institutions of specified type, and correspondence to obtain specific information concerning institutions for which complete data were not available. A more complete discussion of the preparation of these lists will appear in the report, Eighteenth Decennial Census, Procedural History, Volume II, "Population and Housing Items in the Censuses."

The preparation of these lists prior to the actual enumeration, rather than afterwards as in the 1950 Census, permitted a more careful consideration of the criteria that should be used to classify institutions for which the proper type was questionable. An additional advantage of this advance preparation was that for" specified large institutions which were multitype in function; it became possible to instruct enumerators to enumerate separately each ward or division providing a separate type of care or custody. A final advantage gained from this advance preparation was that the Bureau was able to give each census office in cities of 200,000 or more the complete list of institutions in its area to insure that these institutions were being properly enumerated. Despite these precautions, however, a few institutions were misclassified in the lists, and a few may have changed their function between the time the list was prepared and the date of enumeration. Furthermore, in the General coding operation there were occasional errors. Missing codes were assigned as explained below in the section on "Collection and processing of data."

It seems reasonable to assume that if an institution is established for the express purpose of providing care for a certain class of persons, only that class of persons should be found in the institution. Within certain broad limits this assumption is true. Statistics showing the presence of young children in a prison, or several high school graduates in a school for the mentally deficient, would certainly appear to constitute evidence of errors in reporting or processing the data.

On the contrary, it is equally clear that any strict criteria for admission which may be implicit in allocating an institution to a given classification will be consistently violated in a small number of cases. On occasion, nonveterans are to be found in veterans hospitals, male inmates (as members of the operating staff) in reformatories for women, older persons in homes for children, children in homes for the aged, and so on. The background from which the apparent contradictions between the characteristics of inmates and Type of Institution arise is implicit in the foregoing discussion. In General, these discrepancies between theory and practice reflect the wide variety of situations in which a need for institutional care arises, on the one hand, and the lack of appropriate institutional facilities, on the other.

In large multifunction institutions, each ward or service is considered to be a separate type of institution. Thus, if a Veterans Administration hospital provides both, psychiatric care and tuberculosis care, one part of the hospital is counted as a mental hospital and the other part as a tuberculosis hospital. Small institutions such as homes for the aged and dependent are generally counted by their overall type of care and hence as only one institution.

Data on the size of institutions have been obtained by counting the number of inmates of that institution, as estimated from the 25-percent sample. In multifunction institutions, the classification by size is based on the number of inmates under a given type of care or custody.

Some inaccuracy in the number of institutions and in the classification by size resulted from the fact that the relatively few institutions located in more than one enumeration district were counted separately for each of their enumeration districts. These few institutions were counted in more than one enumeration district either because of their large size or because the boundaries of the institution extended across the lines of a political boundary.

Also, in a very few multifunction institutions the wards containing inmates under a given type of care or custody were not enumerated in sequence but were interspersed with wards of other types. Because the electronic computer recognized each change in type of care or custody as a new institution, the statistics by size of institution were affected.

The median is presented in connection with the data on age and Years of School Completed. It is the value which divides the distribution into two equal parts, one-half the cases falling below this value and one-half the cases exceeding this value.

In General, the urban population comprises all persons living in urbanized areas and in places of 2,500 inhabitants or more outside urbanized areas. More specifically, according to the definition adopted for use in the 1960 Census, the urban population comprises all persons living in (a) places of 2,500 inhabitants or more incorporated as cities, boroughs, villages, and towns (except towns in New England, New York, and Wisconsin) 5 (b) the densely settled urban, fringe, whether incorporated or unincorporated, of urbanized areas; (c) towns in New England and townships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania which contain no incorporated municipalities as subdivisions and have either 25,000 inhabitants or more or a population of 2,500 to 25,000 and a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; (d) counties in States other than the New England States, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania that have no incorporated municipalities within their boundaries and have a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; and (e) unincorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more. The rural population comprises all persons not included in the urban population. All inmates of institutions in rural areas are classified as in the rural-nonfarm population.

Except in New England, an SMS A is a county or group of contiguous counties which contains at least one city of 50,000 inhabitants or more, or "twin cities" with a combined population of at least 50,000. In addition to the county, or counties, containing such a city or cities, contiguous counties are included in an SMSA if, according to certain criteria, they are essentially metropolitan in character and are socially and economically integrated with the central city. In New England, SMSA's consist of towns and cities, rather than counties.

With a few exceptions, the primary divisions of the States are called counties. In Louisiana these divisions are known as parishes, and in Alaska where there are no counties data are shown for election districts, which are the nearest equivalents of counties. In Maryland, Missouri, and Virginia, there are a number of cities which are independent of any county organization and thus constitute primary divisions of their States.

Urban places in 1960 include all incorporated and unincorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more, and the towns, townships, and counties classified as urban.

The age classification is based on the age of the person in completed years as of April 1, 1960, as determined from the reply to a question on month and year of birth.

The term "color" refers to the division of population into two groups, white and nonwhite. The color group designated as "nonwhite" consists of such races as the Negro, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Hawaiian, Asian Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Malayan races. Persons of Mexican birth or ancestry who are not definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race are classified as white.

In this report, the native population is further classified by region of birth on the basis of information on State of birth. The 1960 instructions specified that place of birth was to be reported In terms of the mother's usual State of residence at the time of the birth rather than in terms of the location of the hospital if the birth occurred in a hospital. In table 18, the category "place of birth not reported" Includes both natives whose State of birth was not reported and the relatively few who were born in an outlying area of the United States or abroad or at sea of native American parents. In tables 25 to 32, where selected regions of birth are shown, the residual category "born elsewhere" Includes natives born in other regions, in outlying areas of the United States, or abroad or at sea of native American parents; natives whose State of birth was not reported; and also the foreign born.

Persons of Puerto Rican Birth comprise all persons born in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In this report, figures for persons of Puerto Rican Birth are limited to persons who were living in the United States exclusive of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas In'1960.

In the 1960 Census, the enumeration forms contained a question on year moved into present house (or apartment). Enumerators were instructed to obtain the date the inmate (last) entered the institution rather than the date he moved into his present dormitory or room.

Residence on April 1, 1955, is the usual place of residence five years prior to enumeration. The category "in same institution in 1955" includes all inmates 5 years old and over who were reported as living in the institution on the date of enumeration in 1960 and five years prior to enumeration. Included in the group are inmates who had never moved during the five years as well as those who had moved but by 1960 had returned to the institution. The category "living elsewhere in 1955" includes persons who, on April 1, 1955, lived elsewhere. This category was subdivided into four groups according to the 1955 residence, viz., "same county," "different county, same State," "different State," and "abroad." The category "abroad" includes those with residence in a foreign country or an outlying area of the United States in 1955. (In the coding of this item, persons who lived in Alaska or Hawaii in 1955 but in other States in 1960 were classified as living in a different State in 1955.) Inmates 5 years old and over whose record indicated they had been admitted to the institution after April 1, 1955, but for whom sufficiently complete and consistent information regarding residence on April 1, 1955, was not collected are included in the group "Residence In 1955 not reported."

School Enrollment is shown for persons 5 to 14 years old. Persons were included as enrolled in school if they were reported as attending or enrolled in a "regular" school or college at any time between February 1, 1960, and the time of enumeration. Regular schooling is that which may advance a person toward an elementary school certificate or high school diploma, or a college, university, or professional degree. Schooling that was not obtained in a regular school and schooling from a tutor or through correspondence courses were counted only if the credits obtained were regarded as transferable to a school in the regular school system. Schooling which is generally regarded as not regular includes that which is given in nursery schools, in specialized vocational, trade, or business schools; in on-the-job training; and through correspondence courses.
Inmates who attended classes in regular school subjects were to be counted as enrolled in "regular" schools whereas those who were receiving only training to remove or reduce physical or mental handicaps or special vocational training were to be counted as not enrolled.

The data on Years of School Completed were derived from the answers to the two questions: (a) "What is the highest grade (or year) of regular school he has ever attended?" and (b) "Did he finish this grade (or year)?" Enumerators were instructed to obtain the approximate equivalent grade in the American school system for persons whose highest grade of attendance was in a foreign school system, whose highest level of attendance was in an ungraded school, whose highest level of schooling was measured by "readers," or whose training by a tutor was regarded as qualifying under the "regular" school definition. Persons were to answer "No" to the second question if they were attending school, had completed only part of a grade before they dropped out, or failed to pass the last grade attended.
The number in each category of highest grade of school completed represents the combination of (a) persons who reported that they had attended the indicated grade and finished it, and (b) those who had attended the next higher grade but had not finished it.

Elementary school, as defined here, includes grades 1 to 8, and high school includes grades 9 to 12. College includes junior or community colleges, regular 4-year colleges, and graduate or professional schools.

A veteran is defined as a person who has served in the Armed Forces of the United States. All other persons are classified as nonveterans. Because relatively few females have served in the Armed Forces of this country, questions on Veteran Status were asked only of males. Furthermore, the statistics on Veteran Status presented here are for civilian males only and do not cover persons who were in the Armed Forces at the time of the census.

In this report, veterans are classified according to period of military service. Those who served in both the Korean War and World War II are presented as a separate group. All other persons with more than one period of service are shown according to the most recent wartime period of service reported.

This classification refers to the marital status of the person at the time of enumeration. Persons classified as "married" comprise, therefore, both those who have been married only once and those who remarried after having been widowed or divorced. Persons reported as separated (either legally separated or otherwise absent from the spouse because of marital discord) are classified as a subcategory of married persons. The enumerators were instructed to report persons in common-law marriages as married and persons whose only marriage had been annulled as single. Persons "ever married" are those in the categories married (including separated), widowed, and divorced.
All inmates of institutions reported as married are classified as "spouse absent." A relatively few inmates, particularly in homes for the aged and dependent, may actually have been living with their spouse at the time of enumeration; however, the Sample Design among inmates, i.e., a sample of every fourth inmate in order of enumeration, precluded recognition of the small number of married couples that may have existed.

Inmates are first classified into two groups- those who never worked and those who worked at some time before entering the institution. The latter are further subdivided into those who last worked for pay or profit in "1950 or later" and those who worked in "1949 or earlier." The data on Year Last Worked pertain to the most recent year in which a person did any work for pay or profit, or worked without pay on a family farm or in a family business. Active service in the Armed Forces is included. Labor done as an inmate of an institution is not considered to be "work."

The data on occupation in this report are for inmates who worked in 1950 or later and refer to the last job held before entrance into the institution. For persons who worked at two or more jobs, the data refer to the job at which the person worked the greatest number of hours. The occupation statistics presented here are based on the detailed system developed for the 1960 Census; see 1960 Census of Population, Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1960.