50 Largest Cities 1880, 1850

Below is a graph of the largest cities in America from census reports. 1880 is in the left hand column and 1850 is the right. Charleston, SC is highlighted showing it's decline from 1850 to 1880.

If you'd like to view the original source here is a link

Facts from 1880 Census

Taken from Houghtaling's Handbook of Useful Knowledge ©1887

Facts from the Census of 1880
Number of families in the United States . . . . . 9,945,916
Number of dwellings in the United States . . . . 8,955,842
Number of persons to a square mile . . . . . . . . . . . 17.29
Number of families to a square mile . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.43
Number of dwellings in a square mile . . . . . . . . . . .3.02
Number of of acres to a family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186.62
Number of persons to a dwelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.60
Number of persons to a family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.04

Census

In researching family genealogies I've discovered the valuable uses of censuses. But in the 19th century there were very new. The first census in the U.S. was in 1790.

2nd 1800 It counted Men under 10, M10 & Under 16, M 16 & under 26, M 26 & Under 45, M 45 & up as well as the same for Females. It also listed the Names of Heads of families
3rd 1810
4th 1820
5th 1830
6th 1840
7th 1850 This census marked a change they attempted to count every member of the household including women, children & slaves.
8th 1860 This census counted American Indians
9th 1870
10th 1880 This census allowed women to be enumerators.
11th 1890 Announced that the frontier region of the U.S. no longer existed. So, it was no longer needed to track westward migration. This census was also notable for the use of the tabulating machine, reducing the time to tabulate the census from 7 years to 2.5.