U.S. Census Office, Foreign Born at Each Census with the Proportion of Each Leading Nationality: 1850 to 1900 (1903)

Between 1870 and 1900, approximately 12 million immigrants—primarily from Europe—arrived in the United States. This surge in immigration during the late nineteenth century was driven by the promise of economic opportunity in America, as well as by hardships in immigrants’ home countries, including job scarcity, crop failures, famine, political and religious persecution, and rising taxation. This series of pie charts, included in the 1900 Statistical Atlas of the United States, illustrates the immigrant population at each U.S. Census from 1850 to 1900. The size of each circle corresponds to the total immigrant population for that Census year, while the segments within each circle represent the proportions of immigrants from the leading countries of origin. From 1850 to 1870, Irish immigrants constituted the largest group; after 1870, Germans became the largest immigrant population. The British consistently ranked as the third-largest group, followed by Canadians as the fourth.