How America Has Changed Since the First Census in 1790
1890: Census goes electric
- U.S. resident population: 62,979,766
- Number of official states: 42
- Median age of population: 22.9
- Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 455,302
- Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 1,515,301), Chicago, IL (1,099,850), Philadelphia, PA (1,046,964)
The 1890 census was the very first in which electronic tabulation was used. As the prior census took nearly a decade to tabulate, census officials were craving a more efficient way to aggregate the necessary data with few mistakes, unlike the work-intensive and frequently error-laden hand-counting process.
A former census employee, Herman Hollerith, invented an electric machine that revolutionized the census and sold them under the newly formed Tabulating Machine Company.
Eventually, the company went from Tabulating Machines to International Business Machines and became IBM.