The Constitution: Has Anyone Proofread Our Copies?, Appendix 21

THE CONSTITUTION: HAS ANYONE PROOFREAD OUR COPIES? -- BY NICK LEVINSON

Appendix 21: State Populations

State Residents	2000		2000		2000		2000+	2000		1790	1790		1790	1790	1790	Ratio
(See notes below.)	Thousands All		Thousands 18-Up		Thousands 65-Up		Ratio of Capital to Big Cities	Est Whole Number 18-64 Literate in Capital		Thousands WM 16-Up	Thousands		% Urban	Ratio of Capital to Big Cities	Est Whole Number White Male 16-Up Literate in Capital	1790 As % of 2000
											Urban	Rural
Delaware		784		589		102	31%		147,442	12	1	59	2%		13	0.01%
Pennsylvania		12281		9359		1919	2%		135,491	107	44	390	10%		683	0.50%
New Jersey		8414		6326		1113	8%		410,261	45	1	184	1%	3%	4	0.00%
Georgia		8186		6017		786	100%		5,126,380	13	1	83	1%		10	0.00%
Connecticut		3406		2565		470	32%		648,769	61	7	231	3%		113	0.02%
Massachusetts	6349		4849		861		100%	3,908,240		95	51	328	13%	100%	6,392
Maine	1275		974		183		9%	65,965		24	1	97	1%		15
Massachusetts including Maine		7624		5823		1044	100%		3,974,205	95	51	328	13%	100%	6,392	0.16%
Maryland		5296		3940		599	2%		66,186	56	14	306	4%		154	0.23%
South Carolina		4012		3002		485	100%		2,466,660	36	16	233	6%		146	0.01%
New Hampshire		1236		926		147	17%		132,305	36	5	137	4%	6%	38	0.03%
Virginia	7079		5337		792		19%	824,911						100%
West Virginia	1808		1405		277		100%	1,105,440
Virginia & West Virginia		8887		6742		1069	19%		1,930,351	116	12	679	2%	100%	1,007	0.05%
New York		18976		14286		2448	1%		121,164	84	39	301	11%	2%	111	0.09%
North Carolina		8049		6084		969	34%		1,682,267	70	1	394	0%		11	0.00%
Rhode Island		1048		800		153	100%		634,060	16	13	56	19%	49%	734	0.12%
Total		88199		66459		11304	12%		17,475,541	866	257	3806	6%	13%	15,823	0.09%
Notes:
1. Most data, other than of literacy, is from the Census, from either Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2001 (for 2000) or Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (1975) (for 1790; and for 1959 & 1969 U.S. illiteracy (age 14-up) (2.2% & 1.0%, respectively)).
2. A Census age data definition is from Return of the Whole Number of Persons Within the Several Districts of the United States, According to An Act Providing for the Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States, Passed March the . . . One Thousand . . . Hundred . . . (Phila.) (Woodbridge, Conn., or New Haven, Conn.: Research Publications, microfilm), reel 1, image set [1] (title in film: United States Census of Population 1790.1).
3. In continuation of note 2, supra (the division of what would be one note being necessitated by a table software limitation), the following is part of the citation therein: “(overwriting in image of title p. ignored; elliptical refs. prob. to March the first one thousand seven hundred ninety, per id., p. 3) (title on box: U.S. Decennial Census Publications, 1790-1970: Population 1790: 1790.1 thru 1790.7)”.
4. Literacy for 1790 is estimated from The Rise of Literacy and the Common School In the United States: A Socioeconomic Analysis to 1870, by Lee Soltow and Edward Stevens (Univ. of Chicago Press (Chicago Originals), pbk. 1981), pp. 50-53.
5. The rationale for choosing all larger cities for comparison to the capital for a state rather than all noncapital cities to the capital is the need for an estimated equivalent for a capital-proximate census and that eliminating the population counts for suburbs, such as they were in 1790, is impracticable, because of a shortage of information on common suburban-home-to-capital-office distances and commuter transit availabilities.
6. Any urban population size that, for 1790, was near zero for a state (Del., N.J., Ga., & N.C.) is entered as 1 (i.e., 1,000), because zero would mean that almost no one lived at the capital or in the largest city of the state in question, so perhaps the 1790 definition was overly restrictive.
7. The capital city population is overstated as a ratio to the population of all cities in the state not smaller than the capital, thereby ignoring other cities, except that for 1790 when the ratio for a state cannot be determined the overall ratio for all the states with known ratios taken together is used instead.
8. For age data for 1790, 16-year-olds are counted with older persons. That definitional element is based on the source cited in notes 2-3, supra.
9. Literacy in 2000 for all adult demographics and all states is underestimated at 98%.
10. Literacy in 1790 for White males age 16-up is estimated at 50%, based on Army volunteer enlistee illiteracy of 42% in 1799-1809 (that based on enlistees signing with marks), and on the enlistee pool being skewed toward farmers and laborers and about age 25, thus less often literate. (How age correlated with literacy is unknown; and insofar as Blacks, Indians, and female Whites didn’t enlist and weren’t evaluated, national English literacy was probably much lower.)
11. Literacy standards, for these purposes, are low. A proofreader needed little more than the consistent ability to parse words and paragraphs and to recognize all the letters, numbers, and punctuation for common styles of writing. More than a minimal ability to abstract a meaning was not necessary. No legal skill was required.
12. West Virginia is included for 2000 because population figures for 1790 combined West Virginia with Virginia.
13. Massachusetts in 1790 included what later became Maine. Therefore, while figures for Maine are entered, only Massachusetts figures are used, in order to avoid double-counting the Maine population. For 2000, each state’s figures are stated separately.
14. Boundaries of states, cities, and other geopolitical units may have changed between 1790 and 2000. The recognized entity is the basis of the data; no effort was made to aggregate or disaggregate geopolitical units.

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Article URL: http://www.GeoCities.com/Nick_Levinson/law/const_proofrdg/article.htm
Appendix first publicly posted to the World Wide Web July 24, 2004; revised (to add links) and posted August 17, 2004.
Minor revisions: Copyright © 2004 Nick Levinson
Balance: Copyright © 2003 Nick Levinson
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