Census information for US, circa 1995?

November 13, 2008 5:58 PM

Where can I find the population of US states in 1995?

I need individual population statistics for US states for 1995. I've managed to find similar information for Canada on the Statistics Canada website (based on the 96 Census), but the US Census Bureau is much more confusing to navigate. Googling has yielded nothing. Hope me, AskMe!

A year off would be okay (e.g. 94-96), but any more than that is a bit of a stretch. Thanks!

posted by Phire to society & culture (6 comments total)

Here you go.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:04 PM on November 13, 2008

Well your problem here is that the US Census is only conducted in years ending in "0", so ther aren't going to be exact figures for 1995. But they do have official estimates, which are listed here.
posted by valkyryn at 6:06 PM on November 13, 2008

Also.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:17 PM on November 13, 2008

Excellent, many thanks!
posted by Phire at 6:22 PM on November 13, 2008

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/past_years.html

Try here if you're looking for a bit more detail that's not based on projections. The Statistical Abstract is broken down into individual years despite the decennial census.
posted by charmcityblues at 8:08 PM on November 13, 2008

The question has been answered by valkyryn, but I just thought I'd jump in and point out that ryanshepard's answer is very incorrect. What he linked to was projections, based on the 1990 Census, released 12 years ago. Projections are a best guess of future population trends, based on certain assumptions. If you want to be accurate, using old projections of a time period that's already passed is a pretty bad idea.

Instead, what you would want are estimates, which look at the population of an area for a time period that has already passed, based on observations of the real population. In the case of the Census Bureau intercensal estimates, a portion of which valkyryn linked to above, the estimates use the Decennial Census count as a base, and update it using records of births, deaths, and migration (at the state and county level). The data are released every single year, for every state, county, and city in the U.S., and include breakouts for age, sex, race, and ethnicity at the state and county level.

If you are interested in projections (looking into the future), then you still wouldn't want to use ryanshepard's link, because those 1990-based projections have been long superseded by projections based on Census 2000. Those projections, for states, can be found here.
posted by Eldritch at 5:20 AM on November 14, 2008