New York was the most populous state in the union in the year 1900. It had the largest white population, for both native born and foreign born persons, and together these groups made up over 7.1 million of New York's 7.2 million inhabitants at this time. The United States' industrial centers to the north and northeast were one of the most important economic draws during this period, and states in these regions had the largest foreign born white populations. Ethnic minorities Immigration into the agricultural southern states was much lower than the north, and these states had the largest Black populations due to the legacy of slavery - this balance would begin to shift in the following decades as a large share of the Black population migrated to urban centers to the north during the Great Migration. The Japanese and Chinese populations at this time were more concentrated in the West, as these states were the most common point of entry for Asians into the country. The states with the largest Native American populations were to the west and southwest, due to the legacy of forced displacement - this included the Indian Territory, an unorganized and independent territory assigned to the Native American population in the early 1800s, although this was incorporated into Oklahoma when it was admitted into the union in 1907. Additionally, non-taxpaying Native Americans were historically omitted from the U.S. Census, as they usually lived in separate communities and could not vote or hold office - more of an effort was made to count all Native Americans from 1890 onward, although there are likely inaccuracies in the figures given here. Changing distribution Internal migration in the 20th century greatly changed population distribution across the country, with California and Florida now ranking among the three most populous states in the U.S. today, while they were outside the top 20 in 1900. The growth of Western states' populations was largely due to the wave of internal migration during the Great Depression, where unemployment in the east saw many emigrate to "newer" states in search of opportunity, as well as significant immigration from Latin America (especially Mexico) and Asia since the mid-1900s.

The United States had a population of 76.3 million people in 1900. Approximately 67 million of these were white, of whom the majority were native born, while most of the remaining nine million people were Black. At this time, the United States Census included persons of Hispanic origin along with its white population, however the Hispanic share of the population in 1900 was much lower than it is today.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the state of California from 1900 to 2024.

The total population in the United States was estimated at 341.2 million people in 2024, according to the latest census figures and projections from Trading Economics. This dataset provides - United States Population - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the state of Florida from 1900 to 2024.

The world's population first reached one billion people in 1803, and reach eight billion in 2023, and will peak at almost 11 billion by the end of the century. Although it took thousands of years to reach one billion people, it did so at the beginning of a phenomenon known as the demographic transition; from this point onwards, population growth has skyrocketed, and since the 1960s the population has increased by one billion people every 12 to 15 years. The demographic transition sees a sharp drop in mortality due to factors such as vaccination, sanitation, and improved food supply; the population boom that follows is due to increased survival rates among children and higher life expectancy among the general population; and fertility then drops in response to this population growth. Regional differences The demographic transition is a global phenomenon, but it has taken place at different times across the world. The industrialized countries of Europe and North America were the first to go through this process, followed by some states in the Western Pacific. Latin America's population then began growing at the turn of the 20th century, but the most significant period of global population growth occurred as Asia progressed in the late-1900s. As of the early 21st century, almost two thirds of the world's population live in Asia, although this is set to change significantly in the coming decades. Future growth The growth of Africa's population, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, will have the largest impact on global demographics in this century. From 2000 to 2100, it is expected that Africa's population will have increased by a factor of almost five. It overtook Europe in size in the late 1990s, and overtook the Americas a decade later. In contrast to Africa, Europe's population is now in decline, as birth rates are consistently below death rates in many countries, especially in the south and east, resulting in natural population decline. Similarly, the population of the Americas and Asia are expected to go into decline in the second half of this century, and only Oceania's population will still be growing alongside Africa. By 2100, the world's population will have over three billion more than today, with the vast majority of this concentrated in Africa. Demographers predict that climate change is exacerbating many of the challenges that currently hinder progress in Africa, such as political and food instability; if Africa's transition is prolonged, then it may result in further population growth that would place a strain on the region's resources, however, curbing this growth earlier would alleviate some of the pressure created by climate change.

Key information about United States population

• The United States population reached 341.2 million people in Dec 2024, compared with the previously reported figure of 338.4 million people in Dec 2023
• The data reached an all-time high of 341.2 million people in Dec 2024 and a record low of 76.1 million people in Dec 1900

CEIC extends history for annual Population. The Bureau of Economic Analysis provides year-end Population. Population prior to 1947 excludes residents of Alaska and Hawaii. Population prior to 1947 is a Mid-year estimate sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau.


Further information about United States population data

• In the latest reports, United States Unemployment Rate dropped to 4.1 % in Dec 2024
• Monthly earnings of the United States population was 4,896.7 USD in Dec 2024
• United States Labour Force Participation Rate dropped to 62.2 % in Dec 2024

This data collection contains information about total population and total number of professionally employed within the principal occupational groups agriculture, industry, commerce, transport, storage and communication, public service and unspecified occupations, and also within subgroups of these principal groups.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the state of New York from 1900 to 2024.

Between 1800 and 2021, the total population of each continent experienced consistent growth, however as growth rates varied by region, population distribution has fluctuated. In the early 19th century, almost 70 percent of the world's population lived in Asia, while fewer than 10 percent lived in Africa. By the end of this century, it is believed that Asia's share will fall to roughly 45 percent, while Africa's will be on course to reach 40 percent. 19th and 20th centuries Fewer than 2.5 percent of the world's population lived in the Americas in 1800, however the demographic transition, along with waves of migration, would see this share rise to almost 10 percent a century later, peaking at almost 14 percent in the 1960s. Europe's share of the global population also grew in the 19th century, to roughly a quarter in 1900, but fell thereafter and saw the largest relative decline during the 20th century. Asia, which has consistently been the world's most populous continent, saw its population share drop by the mid-1900s, but it has been around 60 percent since the 1970s. It is important to note that the world population has grown from approximately one to eight billion people between 1800 and the 2020s, and that declines in population distribution before 2020 have resulted from different growth rates across the continents. 21st century Africa's population share remained fairly constant throughout this time, fluctuating between 7.5 and 10 percent until the late-1900s, but it is set to see the largest change over the 21st century. As Europe's total population is now falling, and it is estimated that the total populations of Asia and the Americas will fall by the 2050s and 2070s respectively, rapid population growth in Africa will see a significant shift in population distribution. Africa's population is predicted to grow from 1.3 to 3.9 billion people over the next eight decades, and its share of the total population will rise to almost 40 percent. The only other continent whose population will still be growing at this time will be Oceania, although its share of the total population has never been more than 0.7 percent.

Washington state population density by county by decade 1900 to 2020.

In the past four centuries, the population of the United States has grown from a recorded 350 people around the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1610, to an estimated 331 million people in 2020. The pre-colonization populations of the indigenous peoples of the Americas have proven difficult for historians to estimate, as their numbers decreased rapidly following the introduction of European diseases (namely smallpox, plague and influenza). Native Americans were also omitted from most censuses conducted before the twentieth century, therefore the actual population of what we now know as the United States would have been much higher than the official census data from before 1800, but it is unclear by how much. Population growth in the colonies throughout the eighteenth century has primarily been attributed to migration from the British Isles and the Transatlantic slave trade; however it is also difficult to assert the ethnic-makeup of the population in these years as accurate migration records were not kept until after the 1820s, at which point the importation of slaves had also been illegalized. Nineteenth century In the year 1800, it is estimated that the population across the present-day United States was around six million people, with the population in the 16 admitted states numbering at 5.3 million. Migration to the United States began to happen on a large scale in the mid-nineteenth century, with the first major waves coming from Ireland, Britain and Germany. In some aspects, this wave of mass migration balanced out the demographic impacts of the American Civil War, which was the deadliest war in U.S. history with approximately 620 thousand fatalities between 1861 and 1865. The civil war also resulted in the emancipation of around four million slaves across the south; many of whose ancestors would take part in the Great Northern Migration in the early 1900s, which saw around six million black Americans migrate away from the south in one of the largest demographic shifts in U.S. history. By the end of the nineteenth century, improvements in transport technology and increasing economic opportunities saw migration to the United States increase further, particularly from southern and Eastern Europe, and in the first decade of the 1900s the number of migrants to the U.S. exceeded one million people in some years. Twentieth and twenty-first century The U.S. population has grown steadily throughout the past 120 years, reaching one hundred million in the 1910s, two hundred million in the 1960s, and three hundred million in 2007. In the past century, the U.S. established itself as a global superpower, with the world's largest economy (by nominal GDP) and most powerful military. Involvement in foreign wars has resulted in over 620,000 further U.S. fatalities since the Civil War, and migration fell drastically during the World Wars and Great Depression; however the population continuously grew in these years as the total fertility rate remained above two births per woman, and life expectancy increased (except during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918).

Since the Second World War, Latin America has replaced Europe as the most common point of origin for migrants, with Hispanic populations growing rapidly across the south and border states. Because of this, the proportion of non-Hispanic whites, which has been the most dominant ethnicity in the U.S. since records began, has dropped more rapidly in recent decades. Ethnic minorities also have a much higher birth rate than non-Hispanic whites, further contributing to this decline, and the share of non-Hispanic whites is expected to fall below fifty percent of the U.S. population by the mid-2000s. In 2020, the United States has the third-largest population in the world (after China and India), and the population is expected to reach four hundred million in the 2050s.

The earliest point where scientists can make reasonable estimates for the population of global regions is around 10,000 years before the Common Era (or 12,000 years ago). Estimates suggest that Asia has consistently been the most populated continent, and the least populated continent has generally been Oceania (although it was more heavily populated than areas such as North America in very early years). Population growth was very slow, but an increase can be observed between most of the given time periods. There were, however, dips in population due to pandemics, the most notable of these being the impact of plague in Eurasia in the 14th century, and the impact of European contact with the indigenous populations of the Americas after 1492, where it took almost four centuries for the population of Latin America to return to its pre-1500 level. The world's population first reached one billion people in 1803, which also coincided with a spike in population growth, due to the onset of the demographic transition. This wave of growth first spread across the most industrially developed countries in the 19th century, and the correlation between demographic development and industrial or economic maturity continued until today, with Africa being the final major region to begin its transition in the late-1900s.

United States Population: All Ages data was reported at 325,719.000 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 323,406.000 Person th for 2016. United States Population: All Ages data is updated yearly, averaging 176,356.000 Person th from Jun 1900 (Median) to 2017, with 118 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 325,719.000 Person th in 2017 and a record low of 76,094.000 Person th in 1900. United States Population: All Ages data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by US Census Bureau. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.G002: Population by Age. Series Remarks Population data for the years 1900 to 1949 exclude the population residing in Alaska and Hawaii. Population data for the years 1940 to 1979 cover the resident population plus Armed Forces overseas. Population data for all other years cover only the resident population.

In the United States in the year 1900, approximately 88 percent of the population was White, while most of the remainder was Black. The Native American population stood at roughly 270,000 people in 1900, which was equal to just 0.35 percent of the total population - the indigenous population of North America was estimated to have been around 3-4 million people at the point of European contact in the early-16th century, however a mixture of disease, conflict, and displacement saw their numbers fall to a fraction of this level four centuries later.

In 1800, the population of Indonesia was estimated to be approximately 16 million. The population of the island nation would grow steadily over the course of the 19th century, as the Dutch colonial administration launched several initiatives to modernize the region. After reaching 38 million people in 1900, the population of Indonesia would continue to grow until the 1940’s, when the Japanese occupation of the country would see between four to ten million Indonesians moved away from the island nation to be made to work on Japanese military projects, and in combination with wartime famine, this would result in the death or displacement of up to four million Indonesians by the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945. Despite this, Indonesia's population continued to grow throughout these years.

Following the Second World War, Indonesia claimed its independence from the Netherlands, and achieved this in 1949. In the second half of the 20thcentury, the population would continue to grow exponentially in size through the remainder of the 20th century, although the growth rate would slow somewhat in the 1980s, the result of a decline in fertility rate throughout the country which some studies suggest may be attributed to improved access to birth control and improved mass education. In 2020, Indonesia is estimated to have just over 273.5 million people living within its borders, making it the fourth most populous country in the world (behind the U.S. and above Pakistan).

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the state of Ohio from 1900 to 2024.

Graph and download economic data for Resident Population in Massachusetts (MAPOP) from 1900 to 2024 about MA, residents, population, and USA.

This statistic shows the total population of men and women in Poland from 1900 until 2020. When this graph begins in 1900, Poland was not a united and independent country, and was split between the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian empires. Poland eventually became a state in 1918, after the events of the First World War, however it's borders were further to the east than they are today. This statistic shows the populations of Poland within todays borders, and from it we can see that the population of men and women were relatively similar at 12.5 and 12.6 million respectively. In the inter-war years the difference in the number of men and women grew as a result of the First World War and the subsequent conflict to the east, where there were approximately 0.9 million more women.

The next entries in the graph come in 1946, where Poland's population falls to 23.9 million. The number of men falls by almost 5 million and the number of women falls by over 3.5 million. Poland was one of the most devastated countries during the Second World War, due to it's location it was the staging ground for much of the violence during Germany's war against Russia, and the civilian population was devastated during both occupations. With up to 5.8 million total deaths, approximately 17 percent of the total Polish population died during the Second World War, which is a higher proportion than any other country involved in the war.

After the war, Poland's population grew from 1946 onwards until the turn of the century, the difference in the number of men and women remained at around one million people, and the total population exceeded its pre-war levels in the late 1960s. Like many other Eastern European countries, with the fall of the iron curtain in the early 1990s, the population had greater freedom of movement and growth began to slow. By 2000 the population growth was declining, the number of men was and women were at 18.7 and 19.4 million respectively, and both populations then fell by 2015, with the number of men declining at a slightly faster rate than the number of women.

Until the 1800s, population growth was incredibly slow on a global level. The global population was estimated to have been around 188 million people in the year 1CE, and did not reach one billion until around 1803. However, since the 1800s, a phenomenon known as the demographic transition has seen population growth skyrocket, reaching eight billion people in 2023, and this is expected to peak at over 10 billion in the 2080s.