Most populated cities in the US (1790/2023)

The population in the United States in 2022 exceeded 333 million. This is an important figure in 2022. In fact, growth in 2021 population had been greatly halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But how did the population in the United States evolve from 1790 to 2022? And what are the cities with the most population in the United States?

U.S. most populated cities

What is the city with the most inhabitants in 2021? In 2021, the city with the most inhabitants is New York, which has, in 2021, 8,467,513 inhabitants. Next, in second position among the cities with the most inhabitants in the United States is Los Angeles with 3,849,297 and in third position Chicago with 2,696,555

The first census covering the United States was taken in 1790. Although some data – from the period 1790/1830 – have been lost, this is still a very useful tool. In fact, thanks to this collection of data, it was finally possible to calculate the number of inhabitants of the United States. Below – you can find here the deepening on Wikipedia – you can see some interesting data.

State or territoryEnslaved % of state populationTotal% of U.S. population
Vermont0.0%85.5392.2%
New Hampshire0.1%141.8853.6%
Maine0.0%96.542.5%
Massachusetts0.0%378.7879.7%
Rhode Island1.4%68.8251.5%
Connecticut1.2%237.9466.1%
New York6.3%340.128.7%
New Jersey6.2%184.1394.7%
Pennsylvania0.9%434.37311.2%
Delaware15.0%59.0941.5%
Maryland32.2%319.7288.2%
Virginia39.1%747.6119.2%
Kentucky16.9%73.6771.9%
North Carolina25.5%393.75110.1%
South Carolina43.0%249.0736.4%
Georgia35.5%82.5482.1%
Total17.8%3,893,6351

First, it is striking how among the data is the % of the population enslaved. In South Carolina and Virginia were present the highest data with 43.0% of the population for South Carolina and 39.1% for Virginia. In general the state with the highest population in 1790 was the state of Virginia with almost 750,000 inhabitants followed by North Carolina with about 393 million inhabitants.

The number of inhabitants in the U.S. states from 1800 to the present day

If in the Youtube video above you can see the trend of the city, below I want to show some data about the states. As mentioned in 1800 the first state by number of inhabitants was not New York but Virginia. In fact for some years this state was the first in the United States with over 800 thousand bitters on a total that has varied from 5 to 6 million. In the first decade of 1800, New York has in fact surpassed Virginia in first place. First place that was held until the 1960s. In fact, it was only during this period that California became the first state. In 2020 California is the first State for inhabitants of the United States with a population that has reached almost 40 million. In second place we find Texas with 29.5 million inhabitants and in third place Florida with almost 22 million. New York is “only” in fourth place with about 19.5 million inhabitants. The growth of this state since the 60s has not been very strong.

Thanks to the data made in the table above, it is also possible to see the evolution of the population of the United States over the last 200 years. If in 1800 the inhabitants were 5 million and 300 thousand approximately, in 1900 these had become approximately 75 million. A growth of +1500% in a period of time all things considered not so wide. The population of the United States has continued to grow, arriving at the new millennium with about 282 million inhabitants throughout the United States. Currently the figure for residents is about 330 million. In just 20 years the population has grown by another 48 million reaching its peak.

Sources and useful links

I used data in the Census database to make this video.

If you want to see the full video: The Top 20 Largest U.S. Cities by Population 1790 – 2020: https://youtu.be/jUyRKjtuZBU

To read another interesting article: USA – Poverty rate by State – 1980/2019: https://statisticsanddata.org/data/usa-poverty-rate-by-state-1980-2019/

To read: Population of each US State – (1790/2020): https://statisticsanddata.org/data/population-of-each-us-state-1790-2020/

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