U.S. Census Office, Interstate Migration...:1890 (1898)

This series of graphs, published in the Statistical Atlas of the United States Based upon the Results of the Eleventh Census under the direction of Henry Gannett, is intended to illustrate the state-to-state mobility of the U.S. population. Gannett wrote in the report, “Of the 53,372,703 persons of native birth in the United States in 1890, less than 42,000,000 were found still living in the state of birth, while 11,500,000 were found in other states. Nothing, perhaps, more forcibly illustrates the extreme mobility of the people than the fact than 22 per cent, or more than one-fifth, of the native population were found in states other than those in which they were born. This, however, by no means measures the full extent of the migration, since many have moved more than once, and many others who have left their native states have subsequently returned” (p. 23). In this display, each state's population is represented to the right of the thicker black vertical line running through its corrresponding bar. The representative bar is then divided according to the percentage of native-born citizens who were born in the state (solid tan segment), native-born citizens who moved to the state from another state (segment with horizontal stripes), and foreign-born residents (black segment). The the left of the vertical line is a horizontally-striped bar representing the percentage of the state's current population that has moved out of the state. States such as North and South Dakota display higher proportions of foreign-born populations, and states west of the Mississippi River generally contain larger populations of native immigrants. States east of the Mississippi River, by contrast, show higher proportions of resident natives and native emigrants. Virginia, for example, had the largest share of resident natives, while Vermont recorded the highest proportion of native emigrants. Migration to the western states was driven by several factors, including new economic opportunities such as mining, which increased demand for transportation, stimulated economic development, and contributed to broader societal growth. In addition, the availability of land on the Great Plains created new opportuniies for agriculture and cattle ranching, encouraging settlers to go west in search of economic advancement.