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Almost one-third of the original census data have been lost or destroyed since their original documentation. Number of free white males age 16 and overĪlthough the census was proved statistically factual, based on data collected, the records for several states (including Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, and Virginia) were lost sometime between 17. If indeed an undercount was the result, possible explanations for it include dispersed population, poor transportation links, limitations of contemporary technology, and individual refusal to participate. "The law required that every household be visited, that completed census schedules be posted in 'two of the most public places within, there to remain for the inspection of all concerned.' and that 'the aggregate amount of each description of persons' for every district be transmitted to the president." Contemporary perception īoth Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George Washington expressed skepticism over the results, believing that the true population had been undercounted. Ĭongress assigned responsibility for the 1790 census to the marshals of United States judicial districts under an act, which with minor modifications and extensions, governed census taking through the 1840 census.
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In the first census, the population of the United States was enumerated to be 3,929,214 inhabitants. It recorded the population of the whole United States as of Census Day, August 2, 1790, as mandated by Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution and applicable laws. The 1790 United States census was the first United States census.