Data Literacy for Social Studies, U.S. Immigrants' Country of Birth, 1820-1860

We created this 100% stacked bar graph using a table from the 1860 US Census to show the breakdown of immigrants' countries of origin between 1820 and 1860. Great Britain and Ireland had the highest number of immigrants with a total of 2,750,874. However, the Census report notes on pp. xxi-xxii that the actual number in the United States was closer to 3.25 million when accounting for those who immigrated between 1815 and 1819, those entering through Canada, and those who first moved to the British colonies in North America. Germany (not counting Prussia, which was a key region in the 1871 unification of Germany) had the second largest number of immigrants, with 1,486,044 people, f. ollowed by France with 208,602. Although more difficult to see on the graph, there are other groups that are interesting to note. For example, during the first three decades depicted in the graph, fewer than 50 Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States, but during the last decade the number increased to 41,397, largely due to political and economic problems in China, as well as economic opportunities in the United States, including the California Gold Rush.