Population
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1850 | 86,105 |
|
|
| 1860 | 346,714 | 302.7% | |
| 1870 | 516,089 | 48.9% | |
| 1880 | 772,778 | 49.7% | |
| 1890 | 961,628 | 24.4% | |
| 1900 | 1,147,725 | 19.4% | |
| 1910 | 1,569,141 | 36.7% | |
| 1920 | 2,003,075 | 27.7% | |
| 1930 | 2,632,273 | 31.4% | |
| 1940 | 3,066,654 | 16.5% | |
| 1950 | 4,654,248 | 51.8% | |
| 1960 | 6,318,482 | 35.8% | |
| 1970 | 7,849,575 | 24.2% | |
| 1980 | 9,359,160 | 19.2% | |
| 1990 | 11,490,926 | 22.8% | |
| 2000 | 13,234,136 | 15.2% | |
| 2010 | 14,573,946 | 10.1% | |
The population of the forty-eight counties of Northern California has shown a steady increase over the years. The 1850 census almost certainly undercounted the population of the area, especially undercounting a still substantial Native American population.
The largest percentage increase outside the Gold Rush era (51%) came in the decade of the 1940s, as the area was the destination of many post-War veterans and their families, attracted by the greatly expanding industrial base and (often) by their time stationed in Northern California during World War II. The largest absolute increase occurred during the decade of 1980s (over 2.1 million person increase), attracted to job opportunities in part by the expansion taking place in Silicon Valley and the Cold War era expansion of the defense industry. The 2010 U.S. Census revealed that Northern California grew at a faster rate than Southern California in the 2000s with a rate slightly higher than the state average.
Read more about this topic: Northern California
Famous quotes containing the word population:
“How much atonement is enough? The bombing must be allowed as at least part-payment: those of our young people who are concerned about the moral problem posed by the Allied air offensive should at least consider the moral problem that would have been posed if the German civilian population had not suffered at all.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)
“In our large cities, the population is godless, materialized,—no bond, no fellow-feeling, no enthusiasm. These are not men, but hungers, thirsts, fevers, and appetites walking. How is it people manage to live on,—so aimless as they are? After their peppercorn aims are gained, it seems as if the lime in their bones alone held them together, and not any worthy purpose.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It was a time of madness, the sort of mad-hysteria that always presages war. There seems to be nothing left but war—when any population in any sort of a nation gets violently angry, civilization falls down and religion forsakes its hold on the consciences of human kind in such times of public madness.”
—Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930)