Although limited in scope, census data still provide the best general indexes of social change in the United States and where comparable categories over time periods exist the data can provide the basis for making decisions relevant to anticipated changes in the future. Changes from rural to urban residence among blacks in various age groups are well documented and are associated with shifts in occupations which vary by race, sex, and age. Upward shifts in occupational levels from farming through clerical, sales, technical, professional, and managerial and administrative categories bear a relationship to the stability of these various groups. Distributional changes in occupations between 1960 and 1970 by age, sex, and race reflect to some extent an increase in the proportions of blacks in those occupations demanding more education and training (particularly younger blacks), increasing specialization in American society, and reductions in discrimination in occupations that had been previously closed to blacks. Data suggest that an equalization of income levels and economic opportunities would make future occupational and residential mobility less necessary than at present, would increase educational opportunities in succeeding generations, and would continue to minimize the differences between the races. (Author/NH)