How America Has Changed Since the First Census in 1790
1830: U.S. center of population is in present-day West Virginia
- U.S. resident population: 12,860,702
- Number of official states: 24
- Median age of population: 17.2
- Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 23,322
- Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 202,589), Baltimore, MD (80,620), Philadelphia, PA (80,462)
The center of population for an area is a geographic point representing the exact center balance of a population.
In 1830, that center was roughly 170 miles west of Washington D.C., in what is now West Virginia’s Grant County. Today, the center of population in the United States is around Plato, Mo., according to 2010 census data.