UNITED STATES CENSUS. 



tween 1870 and 1880 in these States, but to effect 

 very materially the rate of increase in the country at 

 large. 



So many expressions of disappointment at the 

 general result were made public after announce- 

 ment of the final count that the Superintendent 

 of Census deemed it necessary to explain, in his 

 bulletin No. 16, in what way the apparent fall- 

 ing short of numbers could be accounted for. 

 For some months prior to the taking of the 

 Eleventh Census the estimates as to probable pop- 

 ulation of the United States and the Territories 

 in 1890 reached a maximum of 65.000,000. These 

 estimates, as a rule, were not based in fact, could 

 not well be based upon any close knowledge of 

 the facts. An official view must always be of 

 the greatest value in dealing with any question 

 of this kind. The Superintendent says : 



It is fair to assume that the rates of increase' of 

 population of the Southern States between 1860 and 

 1870 and between 1870 and 1880 were related to one 

 another in a proportion similar to the corresponding 

 rates in the Northern States during the same periods. 

 In the term "Southern States" is here included the 

 two Virginias, the two Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, 

 Tennessee, and Kentucky. The census of 1870 is 

 known, or is suspected to be, deficient in all these 

 States. In the other States and Territories there is 

 no suspicion of incompleteness. The population of 

 the Southern States in 1860, 1870, and 1880 was as 

 follows: 1860, 10,259,016; 1870, 11,250,411; 1880, 

 15,257,393. The population of Ihe other States and 

 Territories in 1860, 1870, and 1880 was as follows : 

 1860, 21,184,305 ; 1870, 27,307,960 ; 1880, 34,898,390. 

 The rate of increase in these other States and Terri- 

 tories was 28-9 per cent, between 1860 and 1870, and 

 27'8 per cent, between 1870 and 1880. These two 

 rates are so nearly equal that in extending them to 

 the Southern States they may be regarded as identi- 

 cal ; in other words, it may be assumed that the rate 

 of increase in the Southern States between 1860 and 

 1870 and between 1870 and 1880 were the same. 

 Classified as white and colored, the population of the 

 Southern States was as follows: 1860, white 6,366.703, 

 colored 3,890,037 ; 1870, white 7,067,213, colored 4,- 

 179,222 ; 1880, white 9,592,568, colored 5,657,635. The 

 increase of the white between 1860 and 1880 was 50*67 

 per cent., or at a uniform rate for each ten years of 

 22-75 per cent. The increase of the colored between 

 1860 and 1880 was 45'43 per cent., or at the rate of 

 20-6 per cent, tor each ten years. Applying these 

 rates of increase respectively to the white and colored 

 population in 1860, there results as the approximate 

 white population in 1870, 7,815,128, and for the col- 

 ored, 4,691,385. These results are in excess of the fig- 

 ures returned by the census of 1870, in the case of the 

 white 747,915, and in case of the colored 512,163, a 

 total of 1 ,260,078, which may be assumed as approxi- 

 mately the extent of the omissions by the faulty cen- 

 sus of 1870. The total population in 1870 was there- 

 fore approximately 39,818,449, instead of 38,558,371. 



Assuming these figures to represent approximately 

 the true population in 1870, the rates of increase would 

 stand at follow: 1860, 31,443,321; 1870, 39,818,449, 

 or 26-6 per cent. ; 1880, 50,155,783, or 25'9 per cent. ; 

 1890. 62,622,250, or 24'8 per cent. Omitting from 

 consideration those States in which the census of 1870 

 is known or is presumed to have been faulty, the rate 

 of increase between 1870 and 1880 in the remaining 

 States has been very nearly maintained in the decade 

 between 1880 and 1890. Keferring to the principal table 

 of the bulletin, the census of 1870 is known or pre- 

 sumed to have been deficient in nearly all the States 

 of the South Atlantic and Southern Central divisions, 

 while in the North Atlantic, Northern Central, and 

 Western divisions no evidence of incompleteness has 

 been detected. The population of these three last- 



named divisions in 1870, 1880, and 1890 the tmolut* 

 increase for the two decades, utid the rate of iucmtM 

 is as follows: 1870, 26,270,861 ; 1880, 88,89,216-m- 

 crease 7,3C8,8<-,4, ,r 88'] IH.T cent. ; 1890, 42,791 487- 

 mcrease 9.15^-"-', -r -JT--> per cent. It will bi teen 

 that the absolute increase between 1 880 and 1890 ex- 

 ceeded that between 1870 and 1880 by 1,788,868 and 

 that the proportional increase was but 0'9 per cent. 



Numerous complaints and calls for n-.cmnn.-r- 

 ationwere received at the Census < Mliee during 

 the three months following the aiumm, 

 of results in connection with the count of large 

 cities. It is remarked in one of the official re- 

 ports that so long as the decennial census of the 

 United States has to be taken under the social 

 conditions that have -prevailed during the past 

 quarter of a century conditions involving great' 

 movements of population, the sudden uprising 

 and rapid growth of numerous communities, 

 and a perpetual struggle for commercial and 

 political supremacy between different sections of 

 our common country so long will a census with- 

 out such complaints be an impossibility. Nearly 

 fifty thousand enumerators were employed, and 

 " only an infinitesimal per cent, have had their 

 work so discredited as either to necessitate its 

 being done again by others, or even to call for 

 the adoption of any special measure for com- 

 pleting or otherwise amending it." No entire 

 State or Territory has been re-enumerated. At 

 the time of the taking of the Eleventh Census the 

 population of the United States and Territories 

 was included within the boundaries of 2,782 

 counties. According to the report of the super- 

 intendent at the end of the year 1890, Multno- 

 mah County, Oregon, was the only one for which 

 an entire recount had been found necessary or 

 had been requested. Six sevenths of the popula- 

 tion of this county lies within the limits of t lie cit - 

 iesof Portland, East Portland, and Albina. The 

 recount showed a county population of 7/5,275, 

 against 61,773 at the enumeration in June. It 

 was said officially after the recount that the 

 schedules of the 're-enumeration contained so 

 many evidences of dishonest work as seriously to 

 impeach its integrity when taken in connection 

 with many suspicious circumstances. Consider- 

 ing the enormous number of places, large and 

 small, included in the work of enumerators, the 

 number from which discrepancies have been re- 

 ported shows a remarkably small percentage of 

 errors. In a recount of twenty-four enumera- 

 tion districts of Kansas City, Mo., a falling off 

 of about 1,200 persons was shown. At Nash- 

 ville, Tenn., a census taken under the direction 

 of the compilers of the local directory showed a 

 variation on comparison with the official cen- 

 sus figures of 153. A State census of Louisiana 

 was completed on the day when the work of the 

 Federal census began. Comparison of result> 

 showed a variation of 2.670. 



As an illustration of the advance in nu>:m< of 

 communication for census purposes between tin- 

 States, the fact may be mentioned that in 1850 

 the enumeration was begun June 1, but the fl 

 returns were not received until Aug. 89 of 

 year and the final returns (from California) were 

 hot received until Feb. 17, 1852. exactly one year 

 eight months and seventeen days after the com- 

 mencement of the enumeration. 



No official statement appears in the popula- 

 tion volume of the Eighth Census of the dates 



