How many white people were in 1900?
Executive summary
The 1900 U.S. population totaled about 76.2–76.3 million; contemporary sources and census-derived summaries put the white population at roughly 66.8–67.0 million, about 87–88% of the total (for example, 66.8 million in one Wikipedia summary and 67 million in a Statista summary of Census data) [1] [2]. Different publications report slightly different rounded figures—66.8 million, 66.9 million, or 67 million—because of rounding and how the census classified racial and ethnic groups at the time [3] [4].
1. A clear number — what most sources report
The simplest answer given by multiple secondary summaries of the 1900 census is that roughly 66.8–67.0 million people recorded themselves (or were recorded) as white in the United States in 1900, out of a total population near 76.2–76.3 million, equating to roughly 87–88% of the country [1] [2] [3]. These figures appear in encyclopedic summaries (Wikipedia) and data aggregators that cite Census Bureau compilations (Statista, historical population sites) [1] [2] [3].
2. Why small discrepancies exist
Multiple publicly available summaries show tiny differences—66.8 million, 66,900,000, 66,990,495, or “about 67 million”—because of rounding, different ways of aggregating “white” (including or excluding Hispanic-origin persons, or minor groups classed differently at the time), and whether a source reports the Census Bureau’s published total or later harmonized tabulations [2] [4] [3]. The Census Bureau’s historical tables and later working papers document changes in classification and reporting that can shift the presented totals slightly [5].
3. Census categories and their limits in 1900
The 1900 census used far cruder racial categories than modern enumerations, often listing only “White” and “Negro” with an additional “Colored” label that lumped together other nonwhite groups; as a result, people of Hispanic origin were generally included in white counts and small Asian, Native American, and other populations were sometimes aggregated or misclassified [6]. That classification scheme means the “white” total in 1900 does not map exactly to modern concepts like “non‑Hispanic white,” which the Census now distinguishes [6] [1].
4. Regional and demographic context
In 1900 the nonwhite population was concentrated unevenly—the Black population (around 8.8–8.84 million in these summaries) remained largely in Southern states, while Native American and Asian counts were very small in national totals (Native Americans around a few hundred thousand, Asians and Pacific Islanders in the low hundreds of thousands), so the white majority was numerically dominant across most states and cities [1] [3] [7]. State-level breakdowns (e.g., New York) show nearly the entire state population listed as white in published tabulations—demonstrating how concentrated nonwhite populations were in specific places [8].
5. Scholarly caveat — mortality, migration and estimation
Demographic scholars stress that life‑tables, mortality differentials and immigration flows affect historical population estimates; specialized work on the white population (life tables and demographic reconstructions) demonstrates methodological adjustments to estimate age structure and mortality for whites in the nineteenth century—factors that can influence precise counts and percentages reported from raw census totals versus modeled series [9] [10]. In short, the headline number is robust, but demographic analysis behind it is complex [9] [10].
6. What the primary Census records and modern compilations show
Census compilations and later harmonizations published by the Census Bureau and summarized by data sites yield the 66.8–67.0 million range for the white population in 1900; working papers and historical tables archived by the Census Bureau provide the underlying state-by-state and race-by-race tables that these summaries rely upon [5] [2] [3]. For precise research, consult the Census Bureau’s historical tables and the working‑paper compilations rather than summary websites [5].
7. Alternative numbers and sources — why they appear
Some secondary sources and later web compilations give exact integer totals (for example, 66,990,495 or 66,900,000) reflecting which microdata or tabulation they used; these are all within a few tenths of a percent of each other and all consistent with the conclusion that whites comprised roughly 87–88% of the U.S. population in 1900 [3] [4]. Different rounding conventions and whether Hispanic origin was separately enumerated explain most of the variation [2] [3].
Limitations: available sources provided here are secondary summaries and historical overviews; for original tabulations consult the Census Bureau historical tables cited in those compilations [5] [2].