38 U.S. Census Maps That Reveal The True America

In 1874, the U.S. Census Bureau published the Statistical Atlas of the United States. For the first time, essential information about who we were, where we lived and how we lived was available in the form of user-friendly U.S. census maps that could be accessed by all. The Bureau continued to publish atlases after each census until 1930, when the powers that be decided to cease production. In fact, no such atlas was produced again until 2007, when the Bureau published the Census Atlas of the United States, based on the results of the 2000 census. But with no plans in the works for an atlas based on the 2010 census (with only some U.S. census maps made available and hardly anyone else stepping up), one intrepid statistician, Dr. Nathan Yau of FlowingData, took matters into his own hands.

Below are Yau’s elegant and endlessly fascinating homemade U.S. census maps, sporting a design similar to those in the original atlas nearly 150 years ago. Some of these maps will, no doubt, confirm your assumptions (population density). Others will upend them (proportion of non-citizens). Others still will address issues about which you likely had no assumptions in the first place (cancer mortality). Some show how slowly the gears of history can move (population with French ancestry). Some show how fast the gears of history can move (English not spoken at home). And almost all show that, for whatever reason, Nevada is a major wild card.

Who We Are

In which the myth of the mountain man of the west proves true and America is still very, very white…











How We Live–And Die

In which death and taxes are indeed certain–but in almost precisely opposing regions of the country…















Where We Live

In which, more than 150 years later, “manifest destiny” still appears to be a work in progress…







Where We Come From

In which illegal aliens aren’t all where you’d think and there is no such thing as a native Nevadan…









Where We Ultimately Come From (Well, Some Of Us)

In which the Redcoats are defeated, the French have surrendered, and the Germans are coming…



















Where Our (Domestic) Resources Come From

In which one strip of land is the nation’s produce section and one patch of land is the nation’s clothier…













How Our Land Looks From On High

In which the west gets mountains, the east gets trees, and the large area in-between gets tornadoes…