This study examines the social surveys of apartment building residents during the high-growth period of Japan to shed light on how those who were concerning adult education in this period grasped the features of urban residents. A municipal adult education system was established after World War II, which relied on cooperativitiy and groups in rural communities. By the 1960s, staffs and researchers on adult education came to share the perspective of combining adult education activities with cooperativity and groups in communities. Therefore, adult education activities in urban areas also need to be based on cooperativity and groups within the community. Thus, the Ministry of Education and municipal education boards conducted several surveys on apartment building residents for adult education planning. Several perspectives were shared by these surveys: the belief of the importance of cooperativity and groups based on communities, considering housewives as the community’s core individuals, and the peculiarity of apartment building residents compared to other residents.