1790 United States census explained

1790 United States census
Country:United States
Population:3,929,214
Region Type:state
Most Populous:Virginia (747,610)
Least Populous:Delaware (59,094)
Authority:Office of the United States Marshal
Next Census:1800 United States census
Next Year:1800

The 1790 United States census was the first United States census. It recorded the population of the whole United States as of Census Day, August 2, 1790, as mandated by Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution and applicable laws. In the first census, the population of the United States was enumerated to be 3,929,214 inhabitants.[1]

Congress assigned responsibility for the 1790 census to the marshals of United States judicial districts under an act, which with minor modifications and extensions, governed census taking through the 1840 census. "The law required that every household be visited, that completed census schedules be posted in 'two of the most public places within [each jurisdiction], there to remain for the inspection of all concerned...' and that 'the aggregate amount of each description of persons' for every district be transmitted to the president."[2]

Contemporary perception

Both Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George Washington expressed skepticism[3] over the results, believing that the true population had been undercounted. If indeed an undercount was the result, possible explanations for it include dispersed population, poor transportation links, limitations of contemporary technology, and individual refusal to participate.[4]

Questions

ColumnTitle[5]
1Name of the head of family
2Number of free white males age 16 and over
3Number of free white males under age 16
4Number of free white females
5Number of all other free persons
6Number of slaves

Loss and availability of data

Although the census was proved statistically factual, based on data collected, the records for several states (including Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, and Virginia) were lost sometime between 1790 and 1830.[6] Almost one-third of the original census data have been lost or destroyed since their original documentation. These include some 1790 data from Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont; the validity and existence of most of these data, though, can be confirmed in many secondary sources pertaining to the first census.[7]

No microdata from the 1790 population census are available, but aggregate data for small areas, together with compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System.[8]

Data

Under the direction of the Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, marshals collected data from all thirteen states (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts including the District of Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia), and from the Southwest Territory.[2] The census was not conducted in Vermont until 1791, after that state's admission to the Union as the 14th state on March 4 of that year. (From 1777 until early 1791, and hence during all of 1790, Vermont was a de facto independent country whose government took the position that Vermont was not then a part of the United States.)

At 17.8 percent, the 1790 census's proportion of slaves to the free population was the highest ever recorded by any census of the United States.[9]

Vermont[10] [11] 22,43522,32840,50525516[12] [13] [14] 0.0%85,539[15] 2.2%
New Hampshire[16] 36,08634,85170,1606301580.1%141,8853.6%
Maine[17] 24,38424,74846,87053800.0%96,5402.4%
Massachusetts[18] 95,45387,289190,5825,46300.0%378,7879.8%
Rhode Island[19] 16,01915,79932,6523,4079481.4%68,8251.7%
Connecticut[20] 60,52354,403117,4482,8082,7641.2%237,9466.0%
New York[21] [22] 83,70078,122152,3204,65421,3246.3%340,1208.6%
New Jersey45,25141,41683,2872,76211,4236.2%184,1394.6%
Pennsylvania[23] 110,788106,948206,3636,5373,7370.9%434,37311.0%
Delaware11,78312,14322,3843,8998,88715.0%59,094[24] 1.5%
Maryland[25] 55,91551,339101,3958,043103,03632.2%319,7288.1%
Virginia[26] 110,936116,135215,04612,866292,62739.1%747,610[27] [28] 18.9%
Kentucky15,15417,05728,92211412,43016.9%73,6771.9%
North Carolina[29] 69,98877,506140,7104,975100,57225.5%393,7519.9%
South Carolina35,57637,72266,8801,801107,09443.0%249,0736.3%
Georgia13,10314,04425,73939829,26435.5%82,5482.1%
Southwest Territory6,27110,27715,3653613,4179.6%35,6910.9%
Total813,365802,1271,556,628 59,511697,69717.8%3,929,326100%

City rankings

RankCityStatePopulation[30] Region (2016)[31] Population (2020)
133,131 1,694,251 [Manhattan only]
228,522 69,433 [Center City only]
318,320 675,647
416,359 150,227
513,503 585,708
611,942 91,184
79,913
88,318
97,921 44,480
107,419 10,375
117,333 11,831
126,795 2,888 (2016)
136,716 25,163
146,692 1,570
156,380 190,934
166,156 3,613 (2016)
175,941 24,226
185,932 11,541
195,661 20,441
195,661
215,375 47,717
225,317 29,729
235,201
245,189 4,522
254,996 1,953 (2016)
264,975 28,633
274,837 18,289
284,826 39,087
294,720 21,956
304,710 12,502
314,673 1,076
324,661 8,330
334,607 4,037
344,594 3,628
354,562 13,785
364,556 1,831
374,555 14,255
384,526 24,245
394,484 135,081
404,440 4,925 (2017)
414,330 8,012
424,261
434,225 12,884
444,166 7,142
454,131 31,913
464,097 301,332
474,090 121,054
484,025 9,974
494,009 61,512
503,972 6,716
513,929 24,069
52Massachusetts[32] 3,894 7,950
533,828 793,409
543,806 27,298
553,804 59,408
563,785 35,369
573,773 58,039
583,761 226,610
593,662 7,548
603,603 32,027
613,602 25,662
623,597 14,172
633,563 23,322
643,520 103,639
653,498 99,224
663,472 67,047
673,460 22,073
683,442 7,273
693,408 69,036
703,406 8,382
713,404 3,240
723,401 2,971
733,375 44,396
743,313 102,882
753,290 42,670
763,262 5,766 (2016)
773,260 204,127
78Massachusetts[33] 3,259 10,070
793,241 52,355
803,233 4,415
813,230 12,717
823,225 67,106
833,224 485,773
843,219 23,732
853,171 22,118
863,170 22,105
873,167 28,115
883,132 63,518
893,100 3,439
903,078 3,769
913,071 5,646 (2016)
913,071 8,547 (2018)
93Massachusetts[34] 3,070 11,314
943,051 7,149
953,035 6,824 (2016)
963,030 86,518
973,027
983,016 51,045
992,995 61,217
1002,994 12,325
100Massachusetts[35] 2,994 12,444

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Census History Staff . 1790 Fast Facts - History . US Census Bureau . April 20, 2023 . EN-US.
  2. Web site: Census History Staff . 1790 Overview - History - U.S. Census Bureau . US Census Bureau . April 20, 2023 . EN-US.
  3. Web site: Census History Staff . 1790 Overview - History - U.S. Census Bureau . US Census Bureau . April 20, 2023 . EN-US.
  4. Web site: U.S. Marshals Overcame Hardships and Challenges to Count 3,929,214 People in a Young America . Census.gov . April 20, 2023.
  5. Web site: 1790 Census: Heads of Families. U.S. Census Bureau.
  6. Book: Dollarhide, William . The Census Book: A Genealogists Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes. HeritageQuest. North Salt Lake, Utah. 2001. 7.
  7. Web site: 1790 Census . 1930 Census Resources for Genealogists.
  8. Web site: About IPUMS NHGIS IPUMS NHGIS . www.nhgis.org . April 20, 2023.
  9. Web site: Slave, Free Black, and White Population, 1780-1830 . userpages.umbc.edu . April 20, 2023.
  10. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Vermont . 1907 . U.S. Government Printing Office . 978-0-87152-015-9 . en.
  11. Web site: Free and Slave Populations by State (1790) . Teaching American History . April 20, 2023.
  12. 0 is the correct figure, and the 16 here should be added to the "All other free persons" column. When the census of 1790 was published in 1791, it reported 16 slaves, which were illegal in Vermont. Subsequently, and up to 1860, the number is given as 17. An examination of the original manuscript by the Census Bureau superintendent found that there never were any slaves in Vermont. The original error occurred in preparing the results for publication, when 16 persons, returned as "Free colored," were classified as "Slave" in Bennington County. See the history of slavery in Vermont.
  13. Web site: Slavery in Vermont . slavenorth.com . April 20, 2023.
  14. https://archive.org/details/headsoffamiliesa00nort Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790 : records of the State enumerations: 1782–1785, Virginia
  15. Corrected figures are 85,425, or 114 less than figures published in 1790, due to an error of addition of several towns.
  16. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: New Hampshire . 1907 . Clearfield Company, Incorporated . en.
  17. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maine . 1908 . U.S. Government Printing Office . April 20, 2023 . en.
  18. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Massachusetts . 1908 . U.S. Government Printing Office . 978-0-87152-021-0 . April 20, 2023 . en.
  19. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Rhode Island . 1907 . U.S. Government Printing Office . April 20, 2023 . en.
  20. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Connecticut . 1908 . U.S. Government Printing Office . 978-0-87152-362-4 . April 20, 2023 . en.
  21. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: New York . 1908 . U.S. Government Printing Office . April 20, 2023 . en.
  22. Book: Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790: New York .. . 1907 . Washington, Govt. Print. Off. .
  23. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Pennsylvania . 1908 . U.S. Government Printing Office . April 20, 2023 . en.
  24. Corrected figures are 59,096, or 2 more than figures published in 1790, due to error in addition.
  25. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maryland . 1907 . U.S. Government Printing Office . April 20, 2023 . en.
  26. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Virginia . 1908 . U.S. Government Printing Office . April 20, 2023 . en.
  27. The figures for Virginia do not include the population of Kentucky. Though Kentucky was then a part of Virginia, the Kentucky figures were compiled separately, and are shown on the line for Kentucky. The Virginia figures do include the portion of Virginia that later became the state of West Virginia.
  28. Web site: Census Office. United States. 1909. A Century of Population Growth from the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790–1900. 47.
  29. Book: Census . United States Bureau of the . Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: North Carolina . 1908 . U.S. Government Printing Office . April 20, 2023 . en.
  30. Web site: Population of Connecticut Towns 1756–1820. Connecticut Secretary of the State. State of Connecticut. April 13, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20170113205538/http://www.sots.ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3188&q=392394. January 13, 2017. dead.
  31. Web site: Regions and Divisions . U.S. Census Bureau . September 9, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161203020637/http://www.census.gov/econ/census/help/geography/regions_and_divisions.html . December 3, 2016 . dead .
  32. In present day Maine.
  33. In present day Maine.
  34. In present day Maine.
  35. In present day Maine.

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