Access to individual Census records

Federal law strictly restricts access to Census records about individuals to Census Bureau employees for 72 years following the census. Currently, individual records from the 1790 through 1920 censuses are publicly available. Individual records from the 1930 Census became available April 1, 2002. Since the State Data Center is not a direct branch of the U.S. Census Bureau, we do not have any individual census records.

However, if you need to access your own Census record from any census taken in the past 72 years, for proof of age or a similar reason, you need to contact the U.S. Census Bureau's age search staff at (812) 218-3046. (There is a nominal charge for this service.)

If you are looking for Census records relating to other people, they are publicly available starting 72 years after the Census they were collected for from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The records from the 1920 Census are the most recent ones available. Your local public library should be able to assist you in accessing these records. Please note that the indexing of these records tends to be rather poor and they are organized by address rather than name.