1810 United States census explained

1810 United States census
Country:	United States
Population:	7,239,881
Percent Change:	36.4%
Region Type:	state
Most Populous:	Virginia 983,152
Least Populous:	Delaware 72,674
Authority:	Office of the United States Marshal
Previous Census:	1800 United States census
Previous Year:	1800
Next Census:	1820 United States census
Next Year:	1820

The 1810 United States census was the third census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 6, 1810. It showed that 7,239,881 people were living in the United States, of whom 1,191,362 were slaves.^[1]

The 1810 census included one new state: Ohio. The original census returns for the District of Columbia, Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Ohio were lost or destroyed over the years.^[2] Most of Tennessee's original forms were also lost, other than Grainger and Rutherford counties.^[3]

This was the first census in which New York was ranked as the most populous state, if excluding West Virginia from Virginia. Otherwise this would be the last census with Virginia ranked as the most populous state.

Census questions

The 1810 census form contained the following information (identical to the 1800 census):

City or township
Name of the head of family
Number of free white males under age 10
Number of free white males age 10 to under 16
Number of free white males age 16 to under 26
Number of free white males age 26 to under 45
Number of free white males age 45 and over
Number of free white females under age 10
Number of free white females age 10 to under 16
Number of free white females age 16 to under 26
Number of free white females age 26 to under 45
Number of free white females age 45 and over
Number of all other free persons
Number of slaves

Note to researchers

Census taking was not yet an exact science. Before 1830, enumerators lacked pre-printed forms, and some drew up their own, resulting in pages without headings. Some enumerators did not tally their results. As a result, census records for many towns before 1830 are idiosyncratic. This is not to suggest that they are less reliable than subsequent censuses, but that they may require more work on the part of the researcher.

Data availability

No microdata from the 1810 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.

State rankings

Rank	State	Population
01	Virginia ^[4]	983,152
02	New York	959,049
03	Pennsylvania	810,091
04	Massachusetts ^[5]	700,745
05	North Carolina	556,526
06	South Carolina	415,115
07	Kentucky	406,511
08	Maryland	380,546
09	Connecticut	262,042
10	Tennessee	261,727
11	Georgia	251,407
12	New Jersey	245,555
13	Ohio	230,760
—	Maine ^[6]	228,705
14	Vermont	217,713
15	New Hampshire	214,360
–	West Virginia ^[7]	105,469
16	Rhode Island	76,931
—	Louisiana	76,556
17	Delaware	72,674
—	Mississippi	31,306
—	Indiana	24,520
—	Missouri	19,783
—	District of Columbia ^[8]	15,471
—	Illinois	12,282
—	Alabama	9,046
—	Michigan	4,762
—	Arkansas	1,062

City rankings

Rank	State	Population^[9]	Region (2016)^[10]
01		96,373	Northeast
02		53,722	Northeast
03		46,555	South
04		33,787	Northeast
05		24,711	South
06		19,874	Northeast
07	Territory of Orleans^[11]	17,242	South
08		13,707	Northeast
09		12,613	Northeast
10		10,762	Northeast
11		10,071	Northeast
12		9,735	South
13		9,193	South
14		8,208	South
15		8,008	Northeast
16		7,907	Northeast
17		7,634	Northeast
18		7,227	South
19	Massachusetts^[12]	7,169	Northeast
20		6,934	Northeast
21		6,807	Northeast
22		5,943	Northeast
23		5,903	Northeast
24		5,900	Northeast
25		5,772	Northeast
26		5,668	South
27		5,651	Northeast
28		5,405	Northeast
29		5,215	South
30		4,959	Northeast
31		4,948	South
32		4,768	Northeast
33		4,608	Northeast
34		4,451	Northeast
35		4,402	Northeast
36		4,400	Northeast
37		4,338	Northeast
38		4,326	South
39		4,247	Northeast
40		4,228	Northeast
41		4,087	Northeast
42		4,048	Northeast
43		3,955	Northeast
44		3,907	Northeast
45		3,849	Northeast
46		3,828	Northeast
47		3,606	Northeast
48		3,560	Northeast
49		3,533	Northeast
50		3,462	Northeast
51		3,445	Northeast
52		3,238	Northeast
53		3,164	Northeast
54		3,071	Northeast
55		3,002	Northeast
56		2,983	Northeast
57		2,977	Northeast
58		2,976	Northeast
59		2,957	Northeast
60		2,928	Northeast
61		2,847	Northeast
62		2,835	Northeast
63		2,798	Northeast
64		2,767	Northeast
65		2,766	Northeast
66		2,748	Northeast
67		2,698	Northeast
68		2,682	Northeast
69		2,665	Northeast
70		2,577	Northeast
71		2,540	Midwest
72		2,490

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. census.gov.
Book: Dollarhide, William . The Census Book: A Genealogists Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes. HeritageQuest. North Salt Lake, Utah. 2001. 8.
Web site: Tennessee Census Availability at TSLA and Online. . March 5, 2013. December 28, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20140123204944/http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/census/centable.htm. January 23, 2014. dead.
Including future state West Virginia.
Including future state of Maine.
Between 1790 and 1820, the District of Maine was part of the state of Massachusetts.
Between 1790 and 1860, the state of West Virginia was part of Virginia.
The District of Columbia is not a state but was created with the passage of the Residence Act of 1790. The territory that formed that federal capital was originally donated by both Maryland and Virginia; however, the Virginia portion was returned by Congress in 1846.
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.
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 .
[Louisiana]
In present day Maine.