Data obtained by underground cosmic ray telescopes in the northern and southern hemispheres between 1965 and 1985 are analyzed as a function of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) sense to examine the long-term nature of the latitudinal cosmic gradient, ∇Np. The nature of this gradient is inferred from the B¿∇Np contribution to the solar diurnal cosmic ray anistropy arising from the interaction between the latitudinal gradient and the IMF B. In an earlier paper we noted a correspondence between the characteristics of the latitudinal gradient and the north-south asymmetry in activity on the Sun during the same period and attempted to explain the result in terms of a combination of two gradients: a north-south symmetrical gradient and a north-south asymmetrical gradient. In this paper we present results showing that asymmetry in activity on the Sun displaces the heliospheric neutral sheet either below or above the Earth (on average), according to the direction of the solar activity asymmetry. This displacement, combined with a latitudinal cosmic ray density gradient that is symmetrical in relation to the neutral sheet, produces a latitudinal cosmic ray gradient that is asymmetrical when viewed from the Earth. The cosmic ray data are consistent with a symmetric (in relation to the neutral sheet) latitudinal cosmic ray density gradient in which the density initially decreases with distance from the neutral sheet and then increases again with increasing distance from the sheet. Additional data from inclined underground cosmic ray telescope, viewing from 60¿N to 50¿S, give information on latitudinal gradients further from the neutral sheet. ¿American Geophysical Union 1990