U.S. Census Office, Nationalities of the Foreign Born at Each Census (1898)

This series of pie charts was included in the 1890 Statistical Atlas of the United States published under the direction of Henry Gannett. It is part of a larger display of graphs and charts on the population of the United States from 1790 to 1890. The pie charts illustrate the national origins of immigrants from 1850 to 1890. Across these decades, Ireland, Germany, and Great Britain consistently ranked as the leading countries of origin for immigrants to the United States. However, Gannett points out how Irish immigrants as a proportion of the whole has decreased over the decades, while the proportions of Germans, Canadians, and Scandinavians have increased (p. 20).