A look at the types and numbers of people who were in early Colonial America. Some numbers are controversial.

1. Who Lives Here?
Population of the Colonial Era

2. 2,000
English Colonists, 1625 in Virginia and
Plymouth colonies

3. 250,000
Total white and black colonial population,
1700

4. 1 million
Total white and black colonial population,
1750

5. 2.5 Million
Total white and black colonial population,
1775

6. 16 years old
Average age of white people in the colonies
in 1790

7. 21 and 26
Average age of marriage for white women
and men, respectively.

8. 50-60
The age white colonists could expect to live
to if they lived through their teenage years in
the American colonies

9. Brits, Dutch, Germans,
Swedes, French, Finns,
Scotch-Irish
Countries of origin for white colonists in the
early 1700s

10. 10%
Percentage of colonists who lived in “cities”

11. “URBAN”
Philadelphia, PA: 30,000
New York, NY: 25,000
Boston, MA: 16,000
Charles Town, SC: 12,000
Newport, RI: 11,000

12. 55,000; 25,000; 18,000
Seating capacity for Gillette Stadium;
Fenway Park; and TD Garden
UMASS Amherst has 27,300 students...

13. 5,000
Total black slaves in the colonies in 1675

14. 45,000
The number of new slaves entering the
colonies each year by 1750

15. 2 million
Total Native American population east of the
Mississippi prior to 1492

16. 250,000
Total Native American population east of the
Mississippi by 1750

17. Add the following cities to your map
Boston, MA
Newport, RI
New York City, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Baltimore, MD
Richmond, VA
Wilmington, NC
Charleston, SC
Savannah, GA