How America Has Changed Since the First Census in 1790
1850: Census board established
- U.S. resident population: 23,191,876
- Number of official states: 30
- Median age of population: 13.9
- Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 369,980
- Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 515,547), Baltimore, MD (169,054), Boston, MA (136,881)
The attorney general, secretary of state, and postmaster general comprised the first-ever census board, created in 1849 and utilized in the 1850 census.
The board was tasked with printing census forms and preparing them for various topics. The population recorded on the 1850 census revealed a massive, 35.9% jump from the 1840 census, to 23,191,876 people.