Urbanization of the United States
The United States conducted its first census in 1790. At that time the country was overwhelmingly rural: a nation of farmers. Only 5% of the population could be classified as urban. The country's largest city at that time was New York City, and even it had fewer than 50,000 residents. The percentage of the country's population that could be classified as urban increased rather slowly until 1840, rising from 5% in 1790 to 11% in 1840. After that, the percentages rose rapidly, reflecting the spread of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of larger cities in the United States' manufacturing region.
In 1920, for the first time, the census showed over half of the population to be urban. With a brief delay during the years of the Great Depression, the percentages continued their increase, reaching 74% in 1970. After that, growth slowed somewhat. The United States was up to 79% urban by 2000.
Today, with America's vast network of limited-acccess highways, relatively inexpensive gasoline, and fleet of private automobiles, cities have spread across the landscape to the point where it may be more meaningful to examine recent increases in the proportion of the population that lives in counties that the U.S. Bureau of the Census classifies as "metropolitan," rather than simply places that it considers to be "urban."
The U.S. Bureau of the Census has modified its definition of "urban" several times in the past. Since 2000, the term "urban" is used by them to refer to densely-settled territory that is located in an urbanized area (UA) or an urban cluster (UC). The core of this densely-settled territory must have at least 1,000 people per square mile. Census blocks surrounding the core must then give the overall area a density of at least 500 people per square mile.
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