August 2: First U.S. Census Begins (1790)
Prayer Idea
Pray that the people of the United States would work together to recognize the value of each person who lives here.
History Note
Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution said that the new country needed to count the number of people who lived in it in order to decide fairly how many seats in the House of Representatives each state should have and how much tax revenue each state should pay. According to the text, “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”
On August 2, 1790, the United States began collecting information for the first census. The entire process took months. Sixteen U.S. marshals oversaw 650 assistants, who began visiting households across the country to ask for this information:
Name of head of family
Number of free white males age 16 years and upwards, including head of family
Number of free white males under 16 years old
Number of free white females, including head of family
Number of all other free persons [free African-Americans]
Number of enslaved persons
The federal government did not create official forms, so each marshal created his own form for collecting data. Some of the forms were as short as four inches, while others were as long as three feet. Officials visited households in all thirteen of the original states, plus Vermont (which became a state in 1791), and the future states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The official population count was 3,929,214.
The population count in the 2020 census was 331,449,281. Though the total number of new people added each decade through birth and immigration has increased over time, the growth percentage has decreased. For example, the 1800 census showed a population increase of 1.4 million. That meant the total population was 35% larger than in 1790. The 2020 census showed a population increase of 22 million. The 2020 total was only 7% larger than 2010.
This chart shows how the U.S. population has grown over the years.
The specific questions asked have changed, and the technology used to collect and calculate the results have changed. But the U.S. government has conducted a census every ten years since 1790.
This 1854 painting by American artist Francis William Edmonds is titled Taking the Census. Image courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Learn More
Get an overview of the history of the census and how it works today.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
