Watch as the U.S. Center of Population Heads West

The United States Census Bureau has created this amazing map that details the movement of the country’s mean center of population over the last 220 years. The data is from the U.S. census records from 1790 – 2010.

What is the mean center of population?

According the the U.S. Census Bureau, the mean center of population is “the point at which an imaginary, flat weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance if weights of identical value were placed on it so that each weight represented to location of one person on Census Day (April 1).”

With each new census, a new center of population is calculated. This interesting map shows the center of population’s steady westward migration over time. The first mean center of population was Chestertown, Maryland, which was determined after the first census was conducted in 1790. After the 1920 census, we can start to see a steady trend southward. As of the 2010 census, the region just outside of Plato, Missouri is the country’s current center of population.

Do your family’s movements follow this same westward trend? Share with us stories of your family’s migration history in the comments below!

Image: Census.gov