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Animated Mean Center of Population for the United States: 1790 to 2010

census.gov

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Re: Animated Mean Center of Population for the United States: 1790 to 2010

#11

Post by hollerith »

mpyne wrote: post #6
matthucke wrote: post #4

If you interpolate between the 1970 and 1980 points, mid-1972 would be fairly close to Belleville, Illinois - where, in mid-1972, I was born. ...thus confirming my long-held belief that I am the center of the universe.

Another notable result of the 1980 census was that it was the first one where the majority of Americans lived west of the Mississippi River.

Not true[1]. Perhaps the "population center of mass" is west of the Mississippi, but that is a different statistic.

[1] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_it_the_population_west_of_the...

Re: Animated Mean Center of Population for the United States: 1790 to 2010

#12

Post by tokenadult »

zzm wrote: post #5

Looks like a big jump between 1940-1950 due to the gold rush, I imagine a similar jump will probably be seen for 2010-2020

You probably meant to write "1840-1850" if you are referring to the Gold Rush. Another big change that happened in the same decade was a change in the borders of the United States.

Re: Animated Mean Center of Population for the United States: 1790 to 2010

#14

Post by gumby »

delucain wrote: post #10

I wonder if the accelerating trend towards higher Southern populations in the 1900s was brought on by the invention and development of home air conditioning. I know I would have never moved to Texas without it.

Indeed, it is will known that air conditioning enabled the southern population to rise:

Discussion for the US south (and some discussion of the social consequences of the technology): http://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/jun/24/air-conditio...

Discussion more generally for the world, and also some side effects: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/07/07/h...

Re: Animated Mean Center of Population for the United States: 1790 to 2010

#15

Post by jessaustin »

esom wrote: post #7

This doesn't seem to take into account the non-European population^1...? I guess that's fine if you state it -- just people the census was counting (not even all white people in US territories all the time). So this annoyingly helps sustain the myth that North America was an unpopulated forest until being 'settled' by 'settlers'. 1 ( http://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/decennial_census... ): "Prior to 1900, f…

Insofar as that myth exists, it's certainly unwise to sustain it. However, it's my impression that Native American populations in "settled" areas have always been a small fraction of European-descended population, at least since smallpox and other diseases swept across the continent (which happened before 1790). That is to say, including the native populations or not including them would have little effect on this particular population statistic. In confirmation of this, one finds no obvious discontinuity between 1840 and 1860 on this map.

Re: Animated Mean Center of Population for the United States: 1790 to 2010

#17

Post by IvyMike »

esom wrote: post #7

This doesn't seem to take into account the non-European population^1...? I guess that's fine if you state it -- just people the census was counting (not even all white people in US territories all the time). So this annoyingly helps sustain the myth that North America was an unpopulated forest until being 'settled' by 'settlers'. 1 ( http://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/decennial_census... ): "Prior to 1900, f…

Hm: is "non-European" the word you wanted?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm really not sure. Even quickly skimming http://www.census.gov/geo/reference/pdfs/cenpop2010/COP2010_..., it's not clear to me whether slaves were excluded from this tally.

Re: Animated Mean Center of Population for the United States: 1790 to 2010

#20

Post by clamprecht »

matthucke wrote: post #4

If you interpolate between the 1970 and 1980 points, mid-1972 would be fairly close to Belleville, Illinois - where, in mid-1972, I was born. ...thus confirming my long-held belief that I am the center of the universe.

Or that you're completely average :)
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