1890 United States census

1890 United States census

← 1880 June 2, 1890 (1890-06-02) 1900 →

Seal of the Department of the Interior
1890 census form
General information
CountryUnited States
AuthorityCensus Office
Results
Total population62,979,766 (Increase 25.5%)
Most populous ​stateNew York
6,003,174
Least populous ​stateNevada
47,335

The 1890 United States census was taken beginning June 2, 1890. The census determined the resident population of the United States to be 62,979,766, an increase of 25.5 percent over the 50,189,209 persons enumerated during the 1880 census. The data reported that the distribution of the population had resulted in the disappearance of the American frontier.

This was the first census in which a majority of states recorded populations of over one million and the first in which three cities, New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia, recorded populations of over one million. The census also saw Chicago rise in rank to the nation's second-most populous city, a position it would hold until Los Angeles, the 57th-most populous city as of 1890, supplanted it in 1990. This was the first U.S. census to use machines to tabulate the collected data.

Most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed on January 10, 1921, when the Commerce Department building caught fire, and in the subsequent disposal of the remaining damaged records.