There was no general enumeration of the United States, earlier than the census of 1790, and conjectural estimates alone can be formed of the population of this country during the colonial period.
As near as can be ascertained, however, the total white and slave population was, in 1701, 262,000, in 1749, 1,046,000, and in 1775, 2,803,000, of which 500,000 are estimated as slaves. The aggregate increase during the first 48 years, was 299,24 per cent., and the average increase per annum for the whole 74 years, 13,11 per cent. At the beginning of the revolution, the Southern colonies had 812,000 white inhabitants, and the Northern, 1,491,000. Connecticut was then the fourth State in rank. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were each a third larger than New York, which was even excelled by Connecticut.