Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a big difference.

I created a little two-column chart that I put up on my bulletin board. In the left-hand column is a census year for each of the censuses from 1790 to 1940. In the right-hand column is the corresponding ordinal number. So 1940 is Sixteenth, 1930 is Thirteenth and so forth.

If you’ve looked at a U.S. census, you know that the year of the census is in tiny letters but which census it is (Fifteenth, Fourtheenth, etc.) is in big letters. I can’t tell you how much squinting this little chart has prevented.

I love it when I can do one little thing to make my life easier.

In case you’re interested in printing one out for yourself, I attach a link here to a pdf of my chart: census ordinal numbers. I hope you find it helpful!