Description
This table gives the lottery numbers, by birth date, for the US Selective Service lotteries held from 1969 to 1972 (during the Vietnam war). The first two variables define the birth date: M, the month (from 1 for January to 12 for December) and D, the day of the month. The remaining variables give the draft lottery numbers assigned to the birthdays:
- N69 gives the results of the lottery held on December 1, 1969, for men born from 1944 through 1950. The highest lottery number called for this group was 195; all men assigned that lottery number or any lower number, and who were classified as available for military service, were called to report for possible induction.
- N70 gives the results of the lottery held on July 1, 1970, for men born in 1951. The highest lottery number called for this group was 125; all men assigned that lottery number or any lower number, and who were classified as available for military service, were called to report for possible induction.
- N71 gives the results of the lottery held on August 5, 1971, for men born in 1952. The highest lottery number called for this group was 95; all men assigned that lottery number or any lower number, and who were classified as available for military service, were called to report for possible induction.
- N72 gives the results of the lottery held on February 2, 1972, for men born in 1953. This lottery was conducted for men who would have been called in 1973; however, no new draft orders were issued after 1972
Discussion
The draft lotteries were classical ball and urn experiments: blue plastic capsules containing birth dates were selected from a large glass container. The results were controversial because some believed that the balls were not sufficiently well mixed, and that consequently, the samples were not truly random.
Source
Standard Formats
The links below gives the data set in tab-separated text format and comma-separated text format. These are standard formats that can be imported into most statistical and spreadsheet software.