U.S. Census Bureau, Increasing Urbanization: Population Distribution by City Size, 1790 to 1890 (2012)

This interactive map, based on demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, traces the increasing level of urbanization and population distribution by city size across the United States between 1790 and 1890. Additionally, a graph beneath the map shows change over time in the percentage of all U.S. city-dwellers that lived in cities of 100,000 people or more. The graphic demonstrates the 19th-century demographic shift in the United States from a rural, agrarian society to one increasingly focused on urban, industrial production, particularly in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, by plotting both the emergence of cities with a population of 5,000 or more (yellow dots) and the growth of cities with a population of 100,000 or more (red dots). The graphic also represents the westward geographic expansion of the United States and the explosion of cities throughout the 19th century, especially the final two decades.