Update 6/6/2022
There is no single source for US Census data by county, 1900-2020. Frikkin’ great.
So we’ll have to piece data together. Shite! A pain in el ass.
US Census Data, by county, 1900-1990
This data used to be easy to find at the US Census with a Google search.
Alas, no more. For many many years, the US Census Bureau had a page that included tables, by each state, with the population totals of counties (from 1900-1990). Somehow, in the most recent revision of the US Census site, this data disappeared. The US Census, like many other US government offices, is way underfunded and understaffed and it’s not really their fault, I guess. I assume it will eventually reappear as they upgrade their web resources.
After a bit of searching, I found that another US government entity, the National Bureau of Economic Research, found the historical census data useful enough to host on their website. The page at the NBER is called Census U.S. Decennial County Population Data, 1900-1990.
Once you get to that page you will find a bunch of dead links to the Census Bureau, and near the bottom three linked files:
| 1900-90.txt | cencounts.csv | cencounts.dta |
Download the 1900-90.txt and cencounts.csv files to your Data folder. Don’t change the names or mess with the file extensions.
Same data – two different formats. Good to have options!
Just in case the NBER removes the files, they can also be found on the OWU server: 1900-90.txt and cencounts.csv
U.S. Census Data, by county, 2000 & 2010
2000 & 2010 Census Data for counties are here.
- scroll down to your state or states and save the file in your Data folder. Don’t change the name.
- mine, for Wisconsin, is called co-est00int-01-55.xls
- In this file, you will use the data in the April 1, 2000 and April 1, 2010 columns (this data is officially adjusted from the original census counts to reflect error corrections)
U.S. Census Data, by county, 2020 estimates
2020 Census Data for counties is here.
- Click on your state (or states) and the file should download.
- my file is called co-est2021-pop-55.xlsx (Wisconsin is the 55th state alphabetically)
- In this file, you will use the data in the April 1, 2020 Estimates Base column.