How America Has Changed Since the First Census in 1790
1920: New York State surpasses 10 million residents
- U.S. resident population: 106,021,537
- Number of official states: 48
- Median age of population: 26.5
- Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 430,001
- Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 5,620,048), Chicago, IL (2,701,705), Philadelphia, PA (1,823,779)
The date for the 1920 census was switched to January thanks to the Department of Agriculture; officials hoped that information about their most recent harvests would be more fresh in farmers’ minds in winter, leading to more accurate data.
In this census, four new questions were added specifically to collect information on America’s immigrants: one question asked about year of naturalization and three asked about mother tongue.
New York was the most populous state this year at 10,385,227 people, with more than half of those people living in New York City.