The first United States census recorded a population of 3,929,214 in 1790, a benchmark for America250 comparisons.
The census counted the population as of August 2, 1790, under authority granted by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution. It was the first nationwide enumeration conducted by the new federal government and provided a numerical snapshot of the country soon after the Constitution took effect.
Congress assigned the work to marshals of the federal judicial districts. The law required households to be visited and schedules to be posted publicly for inspection. The census covered the states and the Southwest Territory, while some areas that later became states were not yet part of the United States.
Virginia was the most populous state in the 1790 count, with 747,610 people, while Delaware was the least populous, with 59,094. The census categories reflected the legal and racial assumptions of the era, including separate counts for enslaved people and free people. Modern population comparisons must therefore be read in their historical context.