Mean center of the United States population
{{Short description|Demographic statistic}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}}
File:US Mean Center of Population 1790-2020.png
File:Center of population 2162923483 f183ac07bc o.jpg]]
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The mean center of the United States population is determined by the United States Census Bureau from the results of each national census. The Bureau defines it as follows:
{{"|The concept of the center of population as used by the U.S. Census Bureau is that of a balance point. The center of population is the point at which an imaginary, weightless, rigid, and flat (no elevation effects) surface representation of the 50 states (or 48 conterminous states for calculations made prior to 1960) and the District of Columbia would balance if weights of identical size were placed on it so that each weight represented the location of one person. More specifically, this calculation is called the mean center of population.[https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/reference/cenpop2020/COP2020_documentation.pdf Centers of population computation], a U.S. Census Bureau publication, issued November 2021.}}
After moving roughly {{convert|600|miles|abbr=on|sigfig=3}} west by south during the 19th century, the shift in the mean center of population during the 20th century was less pronounced, moving {{convert|324|miles|abbr=on|sigfig=3}} west and {{convert|101|miles|abbr=on|sigfig=3}} south. Nearly 79% of the overall southerly movement happened between 1950 and 2000.
One occasional confusion is the misconception that the point splits the US population into two equal halves, such that half of Americans live east of the point, and the other half west of it, however, this is actually a property of the median center of US population, which is not weighted by geographic distance and lies in Gibson County, Indiana.
Location information since 1790
| class="wikitable" |
| US Census
! County |
|---|
| 1790
| Kent County, Maryland{{efn|name=a|In the first census (1790), the mean population center was about 7.4 miles northwest by west of Chestertown, Maryland.}} | 23 miles east of Baltimore | {{coord|39.27500|N|76.18667|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | n/a |
| 1800
| 18 miles west of Baltimore | {{coord|39.26833|N|76.94167|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 52 miles (84 km) |
| 1810
| 40 miles west-northwest of Washington, D.C. | {{coord|39.19167|N|77.62000|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 47 miles (75 km) |
| 1820
| Hardy County, West Virginia{{efn|name=b|The mean population centers of 1820, 1830, 1840 and 1850 were in Virginia at the time of their censuses, before West Virginia's split from Virginia in 1863.}} | 16 miles east of Moorefield | {{coord|39.09500|N|78.55000|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 64 miles (103 km) |
| 1830
| Grant County, West Virginia{{efn|name=b}} | 19 miles west-southwest of Moorefield | {{coord|38.96500|N|79.28167|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 51 miles (81 km) |
| 1840
| Upshur County, West Virginia{{efn|name=b}} | 16 miles south of Clarksburg | {{coord|39.03333|N|80.30000|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 70 miles (113 km) |
| 1850
| Wirt County, West Virginia{{efn|name=b}} | 23 miles southeast of Parkersburg | {{coord|38.98333|N|81.31667|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 70 miles (113 km) |
| 1860
| 20 miles southeast of Chillicothe | {{coord|39.00667|N|82.81333|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 103 miles (166 km) |
| 1870
| 48 miles northeast of Cincinnati | {{coord|39.20000|N|83.59500|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 54 miles (87 km) |
| 1880
| 8 miles southwest of Cincinnati | {{coord|39.06889|N|84.66111|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 74 miles (119 km) |
| 1890
| 20 miles east of Columbus | {{coord|39.19889|N|85.54806|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 61 miles (99 km) |
| 1900
| 6 miles southeast of Columbus | {{coord|39.16000|N|85.81500|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 18 miles (30 km) |
| 1910
| in the city of Bloomington | {{coord|39.17000|N|86.53889|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 50 miles (80 km) |
| 1920
| 8 miles south-southeast of Spencer | {{coord|39.17250|N|86.72083|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 13 miles (20 km) |
| 1930
| 3 miles northeast of Linton | {{coord|39.06250|N|87.13500|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 29 miles (46 km) |
| 1940
| 2 miles east-southeast of Carlisle | {{coord|38.94833|N|87.37639|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 17 miles (27 km) |
| 1950
| Richland County, Illinois{{efn|name=c|Computation method used until 1950.}} | 8 miles north-northwest of Olney | {{coord|38.83917|N|88.15917|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 54 miles (87 km) |
| 1960
| Clinton County, Illinois{{efn|name=e|The addition of Alaska and Hawaii to the union in 1959 contributed to moving the mean center of population about {{convert|2|mi|km}} farther south and about {{convert|10|mi|km}} farther west in the 1960 census.}} | 6.5 miles northwest of Centralia | {{coord|38.59944|N|89.20972|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 58 miles (93 km) |
| 1970
| 5 miles east-southeast of Mascoutah | {{coord|38.46306|N|89.70611|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 34 miles (55 km) |
| 1980
| 0.3 mile west of DeSoto | {{coord|38.13694|N|90.57389|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 60 miles (96 km) |
| 1990
| 9.7 miles southeast of Steelville | {{coord|37.87222|N|91.21528|W|region:US_type:landmark}} | 44 miles (71 km) |
| 2000
| 2.8 miles east of Edgar Springs | {{coord|37.696987|N|91.809567|W|region:US_type:landmark}}[https://www.census.gov/geo/www/cenpop/cb01cn66.html 2000 U.S. Population Centered in Phelps County, Mo.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222020843/http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cenpop/cb01cn66.html |date=December 22, 2012 }}, a U.S. Census Bureau press release. | 41 miles (66 km) |
| 2010
| 2.7 miles northeast of Plato | {{coord|37.517534|N|92.173096|W|region:US_type:landmark}}[https://www.census.gov/geo/www/2010census/centerpop2010/centerpop2010.html Centers of Population for the 2010 Census], U.S. Census Bureau. | 25 miles (40 km) |
| 2020
| 15 miles northeast of Hartville | {{coord|37.415725|N|92.346525|W|region:US_type:landmark}} |12 miles (19 km) |
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