The 1910s room

Homeownership Rate by State: 1900 to 2000
U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From Census Bureau decennial time series (owner.pdf). Down from 46.7% in 1900 — the long slow decline from 1900 to 1920. By 1920: 45.6%.
Source note: Time series of homeownership rates from 1900 to 2000 by state and nationally. 1950 national rate: 55.0%. 1940: 43.6%. 1960: 61.9%. Also see companion table: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/tables/time-series/census-housing-tables/ownerchar.pdf
Assumption: The composite family

BLS Public Data API v2
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: BLS series CUUR0000SEHA. Rent rose just 11% across the war years — 21.0 in 1913 to 23.3 in 1919 — while food rose 86% and apparel 143%. Rent is the stickiest line in the household budget: leases are annual, and housing stock cannot be produced quickly. The lag reversed in the 1920s, when rents kept climbing after other prices collapsed.
Source note: Direct API access to BLS time series. Used for: average food prices (APU series), CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), wage and hours data. API key registered. Food price series (APU) available from ~1970s onward — no 1950 data. Rate limit: 100 queries/day for registered users.
Assumption: The composite family

BLS Public Data API v2
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: BLS series CUUR0000SAA. Clothing was the most violently inflated thing the family bought during the war: 14.9 in 1913 to 36.2 in 1919, +143%, and still climbing to 43.1 in 1920 before collapsing. Wartime demand for wool and cotton, and the diversion of textile capacity to uniforms, fell directly on a household expense that could be deferred but not avoided.
Source note: Direct API access to BLS time series. Used for: average food prices (APU series), CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), wage and hours data. API key registered. Food price series (APU) available from ~1970s onward — no 1950 data. Rate limit: 100 queries/day for registered users.
Assumption: The composite family

Surveillance for Selected Tobacco-Use Behaviors -- United States, 1900-1994
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1994 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From CDC MMWR Surveillance Summary Vol. 43 No. SS-3, Table 1. Cigarette consumption was growing rapidly — up from 54 in 1900. WWI (1917-18) drove a spike: 697 per adult by 1918. Total consumption reached 45.6 billion cigarettes in 1918.
Source note: MMWR Surveillance Summary Vol. 43 No. SS-3. Table 1: per capita cigarette consumption 1900-1994 from USDA Economic Research Service (based on BATF tax data, imports, Census population). Table 2: adult smoking prevalence 1965-1991 from NHIS. Per capita = cigarettes per adult ≥18 per year.
Assumption: The composite family

BLS Public Data API v2
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: BLS series CUUR0000SAF1. The war nearly doubled the price of eating: 10.0 in 1913 to 18.6 in 1919, +86% in six years. Set against apparel (+143%) and rent (+11%) over the same span, this is the decade's central household fact — the two things a family buys weekly rose steeply while the rent, fixed by lease and slow-moving housing stock, did not. A price index is not a basket; what the family actually ate in the 1910s remains a declared gap.
Source note: Direct API access to BLS time series. Used for: average food prices (APU series), CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), wage and hours data. API key registered. Food price series (APU) available from ~1970s onward — no 1950 data. Rate limit: 100 queries/day for registered users.
Assumption: The composite family

Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Bicentennial Edition)
U.S. Census Bureau, 1975 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From Historical Statistics Vol 1, Series B 116-117 (white population, at birth). The 1910s were devastated by the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, which killed ~675,000 Americans and temporarily reduced life expectancy by ~12 years. Pre-pandemic baseline: 50.2 male, 53.6 female.
Source note: Free on Internet Archive. Contains population, labor, prices, housing, and diffusion series spanning colonial times to 1970. Essential for pre-1940 decades where no dedicated survey exists. Predecessor to the Millennial Edition.

Historical Statistics: Average Hourly Earnings of Manufacturing Production Workers (Series D 766, D 765-767, D 802-804)
U.S. Census Bureau, 1975 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Hourly rate
Curator note: From Historical Statistics Vol 1, Series D 765-767 (manufacturing production workers). Hourly: $0.260 (26 cents, exact), weekly hours: 56.6, implied weekly earnings: $14.72. By 1915: $0.287/hr, 55.0 hrs/week. These are the pre-WWI wage levels; wartime demand would push wages up sharply by 1917-18.
Source note: Series D 766 (hourly earnings 1890-1914), D 765-767 (manufacturing production workers 1909-1929), D 802-804 (all manufacturing 1919-1948). Pre-FRED CES wage data. Used as the wage anchor for 1900s-1930s rooms (Plan 013). The population skews urban, industrial, male — see the manufacturing-wage-proxy assumption.
Assumption: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Manufacturing wages as the early-era worker proxy

Time Spent in Home Production in the Twentieth-Century United States: New Estimates from Old Data
Cambridge University Press (Journal of Economic History), 2009 · source
Confidence: C — Reconstructed from period surveys
Curator note: Ramey (2009) Table 6A, 'All Prime-Age Women' column. Reconstruction from historical time-diary studies (Purnell Act 1920s, Wilson 1929, USDA 1944) linked to AHTUS/BLS surveys from 1965. Includes food prep, house cleaning, clothing care, childcare, purchasing, and household management. Numbers in italics in source = partially extrapolated. Draft version (NBER w13985) has identical values. Splice caveat: Ramey measures women-specific home production ages 18-64; ATUS (2020s room) measures all-adult household activities age 15+ — a concept change that must caveat when plotted together.
Source note: Valerie A. Ramey, JEconHist 69(1), March 2009, pp. 1–47. Reconstruction from historical time-diary studies (Purnell Act studies 1920s, Wilson 1929, USDA 1944) linked to AHTUS/BLS modern surveys. Draft version: NBER Working Paper w13985 (May 2008, 63pp) — data tables are numerically identical to the published version; differences are prose tightening and table reformatting (5→5A/5B, etc.). Tier C (period-survey reconstruction). Key tables: Table 5A (nonemployed women), Table 6A (all women, prime-age), Table 7 (men, prime-age), Table 8A (all ages), Table 3 (component breakdown). Note: Ramey does not use the 1992-94 survey (missing data), so no 1990s benchmark. Splice point to ATUS: Ramey measures women-specific home production ages 18-64; ATUS measures all-adult household activities age 15+ — a concept splice that must caveat (Plan 004 Measure guard).
Assumption: The composite family

Time Spent in Home Production in the Twentieth-Century United States: New Estimates from Old Data
Cambridge University Press (Journal of Economic History), 2009 · source
Confidence: C — Reconstructed from period surveys
Curator note: Ramey (2009) Table 7, 'All Prime-Age Men' column. Early estimates from Purnell Act studies and Lundberg et al. (1934); 1965+ from AHTUS/BLS. Men's hours rose 13 hrs/week across the century (3.9→16.8), partially offsetting women's decline. Numbers in italics in source = partially extrapolated.
Source note: Valerie A. Ramey, JEconHist 69(1), March 2009, pp. 1–47. Reconstruction from historical time-diary studies (Purnell Act studies 1920s, Wilson 1929, USDA 1944) linked to AHTUS/BLS modern surveys. Draft version: NBER Working Paper w13985 (May 2008, 63pp) — data tables are numerically identical to the published version; differences are prose tightening and table reformatting (5→5A/5B, etc.). Tier C (period-survey reconstruction). Key tables: Table 5A (nonemployed women), Table 6A (all women, prime-age), Table 7 (men, prime-age), Table 8A (all ages), Table 3 (component breakdown). Note: Ramey does not use the 1992-94 survey (missing data), so no 1990s benchmark. Splice point to ATUS: Ramey measures women-specific home production ages 18-64; ATUS measures all-adult household activities age 15+ — a concept splice that must caveat (Plan 004 Measure guard).
Assumption: The composite family

Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Bicentennial Edition)
U.S. Census Bureau, 1975 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From Historical Statistics Vol 1, Series D 49-62. The 1910 census recorded ~10.7% — nearly double the 1900 figure — but Historical Statistics notes 1910 data is 'not comparable with other censuses' due to different enumerator instructions. The true rate may have been lower. Total female LFPR was 25.4%. Still a predominantly single-earner era.
Source note: Free on Internet Archive. Contains population, labor, prices, housing, and diffusion series spanning colonial times to 1970. Essential for pre-1940 decades where no dedicated survey exists. Predecessor to the Millennial Edition.
Assumption: The composite family

Census Historical Table MS-2: Median Age at First Marriage
U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From Census Table MS-2. Decennial census. The age gap was narrowing slightly: 3.5 years vs 4.0 in 1900. WWI would temporarily disrupt marriage patterns.
Source note: Table MS-2: Median age at first marriage by sex, 1890 to present. Decennial census data 1890-2000; CPS data for intervening years and 2010+. File: ms2-median-age-first-marriage.xls. The median age at first marriage declined from ~26 (men) / ~22 (women) in 1890 to a mid-century low of ~22.5 / 20.3 in 1956, then rose steadily to ~30+ / ~28+ by 2023.

Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Bicentennial Edition)
U.S. Census Bureau, 1975 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From Historical Statistics Vol 2, Series R 1-2. In 1915: ~13 per 1,000 population (~5.5 million total phones). Household percentage not directly reported until 1944, but estimated at well under 10% of households. The Bell System was expanding but telephone remained a business and upper-class amenity.
Source note: Free on Internet Archive. Contains population, labor, prices, housing, and diffusion series spanning colonial times to 1970. Essential for pre-1940 decades where no dedicated survey exists. Predecessor to the Millennial Edition.

Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Bicentennial Edition)
U.S. Census Bureau, 1975 · source
Confidence: C — Reconstructed from period surveys
Curator note: Historical Statistics does not track household electrification directly until the 1940 Census. Urban electrification was growing rapidly (Edison's Pearl Street station opened 1882); by 1910, most city homes had electric lighting. Rural homes were almost entirely unelectrified. Commercial radio broadcasting began 1920 (KDKA Pittsburgh). Automobile registrations were growing but still under 2% of households.
Source note: Free on Internet Archive. Contains population, labor, prices, housing, and diffusion series spanning colonial times to 1970. Essential for pre-1940 decades where no dedicated survey exists. Predecessor to the Millennial Edition.

Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Bicentennial Edition)
U.S. Census Bureau, 1975 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: One-time price
Affordability anchors: Production workers in manufacturing (national average, payroll data)
Denominators measure: hours axis: average hourly earnings
Curator note: Computed from Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Part 2, p.716, Series Q 148-162 (source: Automobile Manufacturers Association, Automobile Facts and Figures, 27th ed., 1946-47). 1910: 181,000 passenger cars sold at $215 million wholesale value = ~$1,188 average per car. This is wholesale (factory) value; retail/transaction price would be higher (dealer markup). The source notes 'beginning 1937, standard equipment is included in the value estimate.' Population: all US factory sales of passenger cars.
Source note: Free on Internet Archive. Contains population, labor, prices, housing, and diffusion series spanning colonial times to 1970. Essential for pre-1940 decades where no dedicated survey exists. Predecessor to the Millennial Edition.
Assumption: Values are shown in period money