U.S. Census Office, Total Population of Great Cities at Each Census, 1790 to 1900 (1903)

This page from the Statistical Atlas, 1900, published in 1903 under the direction of Henry Gannett, includes 38 bar graphs showing changes in the total population within major cities at each Census from 1790 to 1900. The graphs help demonstrate the overall urban population growth in major U.S. cities throughout the nineteenth century due to factors such as immigration, urbanization, and industrialization. Not only did city populations tend to increase overall, but also the number of "great cities," as both people and economic activity moved West. Gannett noted in the Statistical Atlas that the greatest increase in the U.S. urban population as a whole occurred between 1880 and 1890, "...the number of cities having a population of over 8,000 having increased during the decade from 286 to 447, an increase of 161, or 56.3 per cent" (p. 40).