We have been working on this data release for many months now, creating census tables, variables, maps, meta data and everything in between. Working with these historical data is hard because there are inconsistencies, some missing data, malformed table structures and other gotchas. Sometimes the data just don’t add up, and there is little you can do about it. But by and large, things came together very well. We really did not skimp on anything; we invested massive amounts of time making fine adjustments. How fine? Consider coming up with concise table titles and keeping them consistent over 15 decades of data. Even that seemingly simple task is actually pretty hard given that the questions keep changing thought the decades.

We are currently cross-checking the data for consistency and making sure everything adds up properly. We will likely bring these datasets out of beta very quickly because we have already done so much testing.

It is exciting and inspiring to finally see Andrew Beveridge’s vision, of visualizing U.S. from 1790 to 2000, come to life!

We hope you enjoy it!