The first U.S. census recorded a total population of 3,929,214 in 1790. The count covered the 13 states, the districts of Kentucky and Maine, and the Southwest Territory, which later became Tennessee.
The census was required by Article I of the Constitution and was conducted under the Census Act of 1790. Enumerators visited households and recorded people according to categories defined by law. The original schedule counted free white males, free white females, other free persons, and enslaved people; Native Americans outside the tax system were excluded from the tabulation.
The number is a historical count, not a modern population estimate. Census officials later revised some state totals, but 3,929,214 remains the standard published total for the first federal census. The enumeration also recorded 694,280 enslaved people, a figure that exposed the scale of slavery at the founding.
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both commented on the census, with Washington expressing concern that the reported figure might be incomplete. The census has been conducted every ten years since 1790, except for the interruption caused by the War of 1812 in some records.