The United States is a country primarily located in North America. Demographics of the United States concern matters of population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects regarding the population.

Historical Census population The following table shows 1610–2020 population data. The census numbers do not include Native Americans until after 1860.

Censusyear Population Growthrate 1610 350 N/A 1620 2,302 557.71% 1630 4,646 101.82% 1640 26,634 473.27% 1650 50,368 89.11% 1660 75,058 49.01% 1670 111,935 49.13% 1680 151,507 34.35% 1690 210,372 38.85% 1700 250,888 19.26% 1710 331,711 32.21% 1720 466,185 40.54% 1730 629,445 35.02% 1740 905,563 43.87% 1750 1,170,760 29.29% 1760 1,593,625 36.12% 1770 2,148,076 34.79% 1780 2,780,369 29.44% 1790 3,929,214 41.32% 1800 5,308,483 35.10% 1810 7,239,881 36.38% 1820 9,638,453 33.13% 1830 12,866,020 33.49% 1840 17,069,453 32.67% 1850 23,191,876 35.87% 1860 31,443,321 35.58% 1870 38,558,371 22.63% 1880 50,189,209 30.16% 1890 62,979,766 25.48% 1900 76,212,168 21.01% 1910 92,228,496 21.02% 1920 106,021,537 14.96% 1930 123,202,624 16.21% 1940 132,164,569 7.27% 1950 151,325,798 14.50% 1960 179,323,175 18.50% 1970 203,211,926 13.32% 1980 226,545,805 11.48% 1990 248,709,873 9.78% 2000 281,421,906 13.15% 2010 308,745,538 9.71% 2020 331,449,281 7.35%

a US Census Bureau 2020 census.

Median age at marriage From 1890 to 2021, the median age at first marriage was as follows: Year Men Women 1890 26.1 22.0 1900 25.9 21.9 1910 25.1 21.6 1920 24.6 21.2 1930 24.3 21.3 1940 24.5 21.5 1950 22.8 20.3 1960 22.8 20.3 1970 23.2 20.6 1980 24.7 22.0 1990 26.1 23.9 2000 26.8 25.1 2010 28.2 26.1 2021 30.4 28.6

Median age Year Median age 1820 16.7 1830 17.2 1840 17.8 1850 18.9 1860 19.4 1870 20.2 1880 20.9 1890 22.0 1900 22.9 1910 24.1 1920 25.3 1930 26.5 1940 29.0 1950 30.2 1960 29.5 1970 28.1 1980 30.0 1990 32.9 2000 35.3 2010 37.2 2020 38.8

Immigration

Earlier colonial era Nearly all non-Native American commercial activity was run in small privately owned businesses with good credit both at home and in England being essential since they were often cash poor. Most settlements were nearly independent of trade with Britain as most grew or made nearly everything they needed—the average cost of imports for most households was only about 5–15 English pounds per year. Most settlements were created by complete family groups with several generations often present. Probably close to 80% of the families owned the land they lived and farmed on. They nearly all used English Common Law as their basic code of law and, except for the French, Dutch and Germans spoke some dialect of English. They established their own popularly elected governments and courts and were mostly self-governing, self-supporting, and self-replicating.

Nearly all colonies and, later, states in the United States were settled by migration from another colony or state, as foreign immigration usually only played a minor role after first initial settlements were established.

New England The New England colonists included some educated men as well as many skilled farmers, tradesmen and craftsmen. They were mostly farmers and settled in small villages for common religious activity. Shipbuilding, commerce, and fisheries were important in coastal towns. New England's healthy climate (the cold winters killed mosquitoes and other disease-bearing insects), and abundant food supply resulted in the lowest death rate and highest birth rate of any place in the world (marriage was expected and birth control was not, and a much higher than average number of children and mothers survived).

The eastern and northern frontier around the initial New England settlements was mainly settled by the Yankee descendants of the original New Englanders. Emigration to the New England colonies after 1640 and the start of the English Civil War decreased to less than 1% (about equal to the death rate) in nearly all years before 1845. The rapid growth of the New England colonies (total population ≈700,000 by 1790) was almost entirely due to the high birth rate (>3%) and low death rate (<1%) per year.

Middle colonies The middle colonies' settlements were scattered west of New York City, New York (est. 1626 by Dutch, taken over by the English in 1664) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (est. 1682). The Dutch-started colony of New York had an eclectic collection of residents from many different nations and prospered as a major trading and commercial center after about 1700. Pennsylvania was dominated by the Quakers for decades after they emigrated there, mainly from the North Midlands of England, from about 1680 to 1725. The main commercial center of Philadelphia was run mostly by prosperous Quakers, supplemented by many small farming and trading communities with strong German contingents located in the Delaware River valley.

Many more settlers arrived in the middle colonies starting in about 1680, when Pennsylvania was founded, and many Protestant sects were encouraged to settle there for freedom of religion and good, cheap land. These settlers were of about 60% German and 33% English extraction. By 1780 about 27% of New York's population were descendants of Dutch settlers (55,000 of 204,000). New Jersey was home to the remaining Dutch and they constituted 14% of the population of 140,000. The rest were mostly English with a mixture of other Europeans and about 6% Blacks. New Jersey and Delaware had a majority of British with 20% German-descended colonists, about a 6% black population, and a small contingent of Swedish descendants of New Sweden. Nearly all were at least third-generation natives.

South The main feature of the economy in Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina was large plantations growing staples for export, especially tobacco and rice. Outside the plantations, land was farmed by independent farmers who rented from the proprietors, or (most often) owned it outright. They emphasized subsistence farming to grow food for their large families. Many of the Irish immigrants specialized in making rye whiskey, which they sold to obtain cash. In Maryland, by 1700 there were about 25,000 people and by 1750 that had grown more than 5 times to 130,000. By 1755, about 40% of Maryland's population was black.

Frontier From 1717 to 1775 the western frontier was populated primarily by Presbyterian settlers who migrated from Scotland and Ireland. Frontier settlers initially landed in Philadelphia or Baltimore before migrating to the western frontier for the cheaper land.

Natural growth All the colonies grew mostly by natural growth, with foreign born populations rarely exceeding 10%. The last significant colonies to be settled mainly by immigrants were Pennsylvania in the early 18th century and Georgia and the Borderlands in the late 18th century, as internal migration (not immigration) continued to provide nearly all the settlers for each new colony or state. This pattern would continue throughout US history. The extent of colonial settlements by 1800 is shown by this map from the University of Texas map collection.

Estimated population of American colonies 1620 to 1780 Series Z-19 US Census Note that the U. S. Census numbers do not include American Indian natives before 1860. Year178017601740172017001680166016401620 Tot pop. 2,780,400 1,593,600 905,600 466,200 250,900 151,500 75,100 26,600 500 Maine 49,100 20,000 — — — — — 900 — New Hampshire 87,800 39,100 23,300 9,400 5,000 2,000 1,600 1,100 — Vermont 47,600 — — — — — — — — Plymouth — — — — — 6,400 2,000 1,000 100 Massachusetts 268,600 202,600 151,600 91,000 55,900 39,800 20,100 8,900 Rhode Island 52,900 45,500 25,300 11,700 5,900 3,000 1,500 300 — Connecticut 206,700 142,500 89,600 58,800 26,000 17,200 8,000 1,500 — New York 210,500 117,100 63,700 36,900 19,100 9,800 4,900 1,900 — New Jersey 139,600 93,800 51,400 29,800 14,000 3,400 — — — Pennsylvania 327,300 183,700 85,600 31,000 18,000 700 — — — Delaware 45,400 33,300 19,900 5,400 2,500 1,000 500 — — Maryland 245,500 162,300 116,100 66,100 29,600 17,900 8,400 500 — Virginia 538,000 339,700 180,400 87,800 58,600 43,600 27,000 10,400 400 North Carolina 270,100 110,400 51,800 21,300 10,700 5,400 1,000 — — South Carolina 180,000 94,100 45,000 17,000 5,700 1,200 — — — Georgia 56,100 9,600 2,000 — — — — — — Kentucky 45,000 — — — — — — — — Tennessee 10,000 — — — — — — — — Year178017601740172017001680166016401620 New Eng. (Maine to Connecticut) 712,800 449,600 289,700 170,900 92,800 68,500 33,200 13,700 100 % Black2.0%2.8%2.9%2.3%1.8%0.7%1.8%1.5%0.0% Middle (New York to Delaware) 722,900 427,900 220,600 103,100 53,600 14,900 5,400 1,900 — % Black5.9%6.8%7.5%10.5%6.9%10.1%11.1%10.5%0.0% South (Maryland to Tennessee) 1,344,700 716,000 395,300 192,300 104,600 68,100 36,400 11,000 400 % Black38.6%39.7%31.6%28.1%21.5%7.3%4.7%1.8%0.0%

Population in 1790 According to one source, the following were the countries of origin for new arrivals coming to the United States before 1790. The regions marked * were part of Great Britain. The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been estimated from various sources by sampling last names in the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. The Irish in the 1790 census were mostly Scots Irish. The French were mostly Huguenots. The total US Catholic population in 1790 is estimated at 40,000 or 1.6%, perhaps a low count due to prejudice. The Native American Indian population inside territorial US 1790 boundaries was less than 100,000.

US historical populations Country Immigrants before 1790 Population 1790 Africa 360,000 757,000 England* 230,000 2,100,000 Ulster Scots Irish* 135,000 300,000 Germany 103,000 270,000 Scotland* 48,500 150,000 Ireland* 8,000 (Incl. in Scot-Irish) Netherlands 6,000 100,000 Wales* 4,000 10,000 France 3,000 15,000 Jews 1,000 2,000 Sweden 500 2,000 Other 50,000 200,000 Total 950,000 3,900,000

During the 17th century, approximately 350–400,000 English and Welsh people migrated to colonial America. However, only half stayed permanently. They were 90% of whites in 1700 . From 1700 to 1775 between 400 and 500,000 Europeans immigrated, 90% of whom were Scots, Scots-Irish, Irish, Germans and Huguenots. Only 45,000 English immigrated in the period 1701 to 1775, a figure that has been questioned as too low. Elsewhere the number given is 51,000 (80,000 in total less 29,000 Welsh). These numbers do not include the 50,000–120,000 convicts transported, 33,000 of whom were English. Even the very high birth rate may not account for all of the nine-fold increase from 230,000 to 2.1 million. Another estimate with very similar results to the ICPS study (except for the French and Swedish totals) gives the number of Americans of English ancestry as 1.9 million in 1790 or 47.9% of the total of 3.930 million (3.5% Welsh, 8.5% Scotch Irish, 4.3% Scots, 4.7% Irish (South), 7.3% German, 2.7% Dutch, 1.7% French, 0.2% Swedish and 19.3% Black.

Immigration 1791 to 1849 In the early years of the United States, immigration average about 6,000 people per year, including French refugees from the slave revolt in Haiti. The French Revolution, starting in 1789, and the Napoleonic Wars from 1792 to 1814 severely limited immigration from Europe. The War of 1812 (1812–1814) with Britain again prevented any significant immigration. By 1808 Congress had banned the transport of slaves, slowing that human traffic to a trickle.