Reconstruction Statistics
By the Numbers
Population
Life expectancy for white males in 1870: 44.1 years
Life expectancy for white females in 1870: 46.4 years2
Estimated mean life expectancy at birth for American Blacks during the entire 19th century: 33.7 years for both sexes3
Population of the United States in 1860: 31.4 million
Population of the United States in 1865: 35.7 million4
Black population of the United States in 1860: 4.4 million
Black population of the United States in 1860, as a percentage of the total population: 14.1%
Percentage of the Black population of the United States in 1860 that lived in the South: more than 90%5
Population of the United States in 1870: 39.8 million
Black population of the United States in 1870: 4.9 million (12.7% of the total)16
Population increase in the United States between 1860 and 1870: 26.6% (despite more than 600,000 Americans being killed in the Civil War).17
Urban/Rural
Americans living in urban centers of more than 8,000 inhabitants in 1860: Fewer than 1 in 5.6
Urban population of the United States in 1870: 9.9 million
Rural population of the United States in 1870: 28.7 million18
Percentage of Americans living in rural areas in 1860: more than 80%.
Percentage of Americans living in rural areas today: fewer than 3%.7
Percentage of Americans living in urban areas in 1810: 6%
Percentage of Americans living in urban areas in 1860: 20%.8
Percentage of American workers working in non-farm employment in 1810: 21%
Percentage of American workers working in non-farm employment in 1860: 40–45%.9
Population growth of Chicago between 1850 and 1860: 375%
Number of rail lines that terminated in Chicago in 1860: 15.10
Miles of railroad track laid in the United States by 1860: 30,000.
Passenger travel time from New York City to Cincinnati in 1800: three weeks
In 1830: one week
In 1860: two days11
Decrease in wholesale commodity prices between 1815 and 1860: 45%
Decrease in consumer prices between 1815 and 1860 (estimated): 50%.12
The Civil War
Number of Confederate soldiers killed during the Civil War: 260,000
Number of Union soldiers killed during the Civil War: 360,000
Confederate soldiers killed, as a percentage of the South's total white male population: more than 20%.13
Number of Black men who served in the Union Army: more than 186,000 (over 70% of them were recruited or conscripted from the slave states)
Percentage of Union Army that was Black by the end of the war: about 10%.14
Number of slaves who rebelled throughout the South by 1864: more than 400,000.15