As America celebrates its 250th anniversary (semiquincentennial), Social Explorer time travels back to the earliest US Census data for a look at the nation plus one of the original colonial states from 1790. We reach further into Social Explorer’s vast data library to look at the US and Virginia in the post-Civil War era and present day.
In 1607, a group of English men and boys founded Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony. Known as the "birthplace of democracy," Jamestown became the meeting place for the House of Burgesses, the first democratically-elected legislative body in English North America in 1619. That same year, the first documented Africans arrived in Jamestown, marking the official start of slavery in America. Long before the constitution and the mandated official US Census, a 1620 Virginia census administered by the British documented 892 European colonists living in Virginia, plus 32 Africans and four Native Americans.
Fast forwarding to 14 years after the Revolutionary War, the 1790 Census offers an early official snapshot of Virginia. The Virginia State population was 747,610, representing nearly one fifth of the entire US population at the time (19%). For a more-detailed view, the following map shows the 1790 Census population density for the colonial states.
In 1699, the colonial capital was moved to present-day Williamsburg, Virginia, in adjacent York County. In 1790, York County had a total population of 5,233. A closer look at the composition of York County shows 59.6% Nonwhite residents, which was nearly as high as James City County (62.7%), and far above the Virginia state average (40.9%) and national average (19.3%). The composition of these two Tidewater peninsula counties shows how the local tobacco industry shaped the Tidewater Virginia region and how the exploitation of slave labor propped it up.
These census numbers also contain more of the history of the way slaves were counted at the time. As noted in the National Archives and Records Administration, the constitution stipulated that a slave counted as “three-fifths” of a person for the purposes of taxation and political representation. Only in the 1860s with the 13th amendment (abolishing slavery) and the 14th amendment’s provision mandating full representation would the census finally begin to count "the whole number of persons" in each state.
Post-Slavery Era to the Present:
Turning to the first census count after the end of slavery and the ratification of these amendments, we can explore a fuller picture of the American population. Social Explorer helps users move between surveys and decades with ease to compare different groups and eras, such as this set of US maps from 1870 and present-day:
Between 1870 and 2024, the U.S. grew from 38.6 million to 334.9 million (nearly nine times larger). Virginia grew from 1.2 million to 8.7 million–a seven-fold increase. Nationally, the proportion of the population that is White fell from 87.1% in 1870 to 60.9% in 2024, a shift driven by immigration and birth rate trends. Meanwhile, the Black population held relatively steady from the post-slavery era to the present: 12.7% in 1870 vs. 12.2% in 2024. However, major shifts within the country occurred, like the Great Migration of the 20th century when millions of Black Americans moved to Northern cities. For example, in Virginia, the White population increased modestly from 58.1% to 60.2%, but the Black population fell dramatically from 41.9% to 18.6%.
Zoom in and explore the maps to see the data at the county and census tract levels.
As the country diversified, so too did Census categories. Hispanic or Latino was not a separate census category in 1870. By 2024, Hispanics represented 19.3% of the U.S. population and 11.0% of Virginia's — the single largest driver of national demographic change since 1870.
In 1870, the Census counted only a few different groups, including Chinese residents who numbered 63,254 nationally (just 0.2%) and just four individuals in Virginia. Over the years, the Census Bureau expanded the racial and ethnic categories and now includes dozens of subgroups from every region of Asia. By 2024, the overall Asian population was 19.9 million (6.0%) nationally and 604,505 (6.9%) in Virginia — reflecting post-1965 immigration reform.
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Some Other Race, and Two or More Races did not exist as census categories in 1870. According to the latest ACS data, Two or More Races alone accounts for 12.6% of the U.S. population and 9.6% of the Virginia population. As the composition of the nation and the way we count people evolves, Social Explorer keeps up with the latest data, adding new tools and surveys regularly.
Access Centuries of Data and the Latest Surveys with Social Explorer:
Social Explorer’s data, maps and analysis help guide us on a tour through American history. As we mark 250 years since the nation’s founding, dig into the data and stories from the past to the present with Social Explorer.
Social Explorer puts Census data, ACS estimates, detailed economic data, and historical demographic trends at your fingertips, with interactive maps and tables you can customize in minutes.
Check out our extensive data library and start your free trial today!
Image: "Virginia" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. 1842 - 1845.