The 1790 United States census recorded a population of 3,929,214.
It was the first census conducted under the new federal Constitution. Census Day was August 2, 1790, and the count covered the states plus the districts that later became Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee, and Vermont. The census was required by Article I, Section 2, which linked representation in Congress to population.
Federal judicial-district marshals conducted the enumeration by visiting households. The law classified people into categories rather than collecting the detailed demographic information used by modern censuses. Virginia was the most populous state, while Delaware was the least populous among the states counted.
The total is not a direct comparison with modern population figures because the census excluded many Native Americans living outside the tax system and counted enslaved people under the constitutional three-fifths rule. Even so, the result provides a foundational population snapshot for the nation whose founding era America250 commemorates.