Edition statement supplied by publisher.

"Our jobs -- Our clothes -- Our leisure -- Our day to day -- What we paid for rent & food -- What we read -- What we watched -- What we ate -- How we travelled -- Plus: U.S. Census comparisons & rankings and state-by-state census data"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (page 563) and index.

This companion book to the 1980 Census provides the reader with a deeper understanding of day-to-day life in America from 1980 to 1989. Readers will uncover how American life was affected by the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the Computer Age, and Reagan-era prosperity and decadence. Collecting information from government surveys, social worker histories, economic data, family diaries, letters, newspapers, and magazine features, this book assembles a look into America's past. This volume features 26 profiles of people living and working during the 1980s, painting a picture of what it was like to live in America in this period. These stories portray both struggling and successful Americans from various economic classes, occupations, and regions across the country, capturing a wide range of thoughts and emotions.