Find your ancestors in US Census 1840

1840 U.S. Census Quick Facts

  • 1840 U.S. Census Date:
    June 1, 1840
    (All reported data is “as of” this official date chosen by the census agency)
  • 1840 Census Duration:
    18 months
  • 1840 U.S. Census Population:
    17,063,353
  • President during 1840 Census:
    Martin Van Buren

26 states took part in the 1840 census, including the new states of Arkansas and Michigan. The territories of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Florida also participated.
26 states took part in the 1840 census, including the new states of Arkansas and Michigan. The territories of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Florida also participated.

1840 Census Data: 6th United States Census

  • Of the 17,063,353 people living in the United States in 1840, 2,487,355 were slaves.
  • It took roughly $833,000 and 1,465 enumerators to complete the 1840 census, resulting in 1,465 total pages in published reports.
  • The U.S. population increased by 32.7 percent from the 1830 census to the 1840 census.

Information requested by the 1840 U.S. Census

Among the many fields are included:


  • Name of the head of the family
  • Number of males and females

    • Between 5 and 10 years of age
    • Between 10 and 15
    • Between 15 and 20
    • Between 20 and 30
    • Between 30 and 40
    • Between 40 and 50
    • Between 50 and 60
    • Between 60 and 70
    • Between 70 and 80
    • Between 80 and 90
    • Between 90 and 100
    • Over 100 years of age

  • Number of slaves
  • Pensioners for Revolutionary or military services

What was lost from the 1840 U.S. Census?

The 1840 census was the first to not experience any major loss of records.

Famous people in history: Samuel Morse

Inventor Samuel Morse was born in 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. In 1849, Morse was granted the patent for the telegraph, which transformed long-distance communication.

Morse sent the first inter-city message on May 11, 1844 from Washington D.C. to Baltimore on a wire funded by the U.S. Congress. By 1866, the first trans-Atlantic cable was laid connecting the United States to Europe. The standard Morse code system he also developed for communication uses dots and dashes to represent letters in the English language and the ten digits.

Historical Events Surrounding 1840 U.S. Census

  • Ireland’s "Potato Famine" forces large numbers of Irish immigrants to come the United States beginning in 1845.
  • Frederick Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in 1845.
  • January 23, 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to be awarded a medical degree.