

Governmental Units Analysis Data (ICPSR 28)

Principal Investigator(s):


This data collection provides information on the demographic, social, economic, political, and civil characteristics of selected municipalities with populations of 25,000 or more in the United States during the 1960s. Information is provided on population characteristics, such as the number of native-born persons residing in the state of birth, percentage of persons aged 5 years and older who were migrants, percentages in 1962 of non-white, foreign-born, and native-born populations of foreign or racially mixed parentage, median school years completed by those aged 25 years and older, percentage of elementary school children in private school, median income of families, number of full-time city employees per 1,000 population, percentage of civilian labor force that was unemployed in 1960, percentage of employed persons in white-collar occupations and in manufacturing industries, and percentage of the employed civilian labor force that was professional and that were managers, officials, and proprietors. Other variables provide information on city characteristics, such as the age of the city, the presence of dormitory city, balanced city, central city, independent city, and the suburbs, the density of population per square mile, the employment-residence ratio, the presence or absence of application for the Model Cities Program, and the number of applications for, and whether the city was a winner of, the All-American City award between 1952 and 1967. Further variables detail information on the city housing situation, such as the number of dwelling units built in 1929 or earlier, the number of dilapidated dwellings, the presence or absence of a local housing authority and jurisdiction of local housing authority, participation in programs of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (Public Law 412), the presence or absence of a low-rent housing program and of slum clearance, and the number of low-rent housing units per 100,000 population. Additional variables give information on city politics, including the presence of mayor-council government, city-manager government, and nonpartisan elections, the number of city councilmen, the percentage of city council elected at large, the percentage of the county presidential vote for the Democratic party and for the Republican party in 1960, and the numbers of registered voters. Other items cover city services and programs, such as the presence or absence of poverty programs, the number of dollars per capita for poverty programs as of June 30, 1966, the presence or absence of urban renewal programs and their execution or completion as of June 30, 1966, the current per capita amount raised for Community Chest, and the presence or absence of action on fluoridation of city water. There are also variables that identify a subset of cities for urban renewal analysis, Community Chest analysis, analysis of fluoridation decisions, and analysis of decisions about public housing.

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Study Description


Aiken, Michael, and Robert Alford. GOVERNMENTAL UNITS ANALYSIS DATA. ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1998. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR00028.v1

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Scope of Study

Subject Terms:   cities, demographic characteristics, education, elementary school children, government expenditures, government programs, housing, housing needs, housing programs, income, labor force, local elections, local government, manufacturing industry, migrants, Model Cities Programs, occupations, population characteristics, population density, poverty, public housing, slums, suburbs, unemployment, urban areas, urban renewal, white collar workers

Geographic Coverage:   Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, United States, Wyoming

Universe:   Municipalities with populations of 25,000 or more in the United States in the 1960s.

Data Types:   census data, aggregate data, and administrative records data

Data Collection Notes:



Sample:   676 incorporated urban places with populations of 25,000 or more.

Data Source:

census data, County and City Data Book, journal articles, municipal yearbooks, and Department of Housing reports and directory


  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.


Original ICPSR Release:  

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