U.S. Census Office, Map Showing Five Degrees of Density the Distribution of the Population...of Foreign Parentage (1874)

This choropleth map depicts the population density of individuals born to immigrant parents in the United States according to the returns of the 1870 U.S. Census. Darker shading indicates higher population density. The map shows a clear concentration of people born to immigrant parents in the northern states, with very few concentrated in the southern states. During the late 19th century, immigration to the United States was steadily increasing, particularly from European countries. Most immigrants entered the country through ports on the East Coast, most commonly New York City, which made settlement in the Northeast and surrounding regions more likely. In addition, the North was far more industrialized than the South, offering greater economic opportunities that further attracted immigrant families. This map was included in the first Statistical Atlas of the United States (1874), a compilation of data visualizations created under the direction of Francis A. Walker to present information collected from the 1870 Census in visual form. During this period of rising nativism in the United States, Walker was interested in population growth among citizens with immigrant parents. In his book, Counting Americans: How the U.S. Census Classified the Nation, Paul Schor notes that Walker became a leading propagandist of the theory of "race suicide," which held that "new immigrants, who would work for lower pay, caused Americans of old stock (that is, at least second-generation, the authentic “native Americans”) to have fewer children, because the economic prospects of their descendants were reduced by the presence of these cheap workers" (p. 148).