U.S. Census Office, Composition of the Population of States and Territories (1903)

This graph was included in the 1900 Statistical Atlas of the United States, which was compiled under the direction of Henry Gannett. Structured similarly to what we would call a butterfly chart or diverging bar graph today, the graph illustrates the composition of each state's population in a 100% stacked bar graph on the left side of the central axis, and the percentage of residents who emigrated to other states in a bar graph on the right. The bars are color-coded: blue represents resident natives (individuals living in the state in which they were born), pink represents native migrants (individuals living in a state different from the one in which they were born), green represents foreign-born individuals (those born in another country), and yellow represents individuals who were born in the state but later emigrated to a different state. Vermont stands out with the highest emigration rate, at nearly 50 percent. Virginia, Nevada, and Maine also experienced notably high emigration rates during this period. The U.S. Census Office was interested in tracking state-to-state migration for purposes of apportionment (congressional seats) and understanding demographic and economic shifts in the country.