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[I have cross-posted this question on the opendata.stackexchange (see here) but would like to benefit from your expertise as historians as well.]

I am looking for a list with the most populous cities in each state in 1950 including information on their population. Where could I find such a list?

Note, I have found several lists of say, the 100 largest cities in the US as of that time, but it is important for me to know the single-most populous city for every state (some of which were quite small and do not appear on any top 100 list).

Edit: I just realized that cross-posting is not received very well on stackexchange (see this meta post). If this makes my question on this site inappropriate, please close it.

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  • Wouldn't census.gov have that info?
    – CGCampbell
    Feb 9, 2017 at 18:06
  • I have looked around at census.gov and they have a list for the 100 biggest cities as of 1950. But that does not help me much unfortunately, as it will not give away information as to the largest cities in less populated times (such as Alaska etc.). I will keep searching the site, though. Maybe something comes up. Thank you for the suggestion.
    – eigenvector
    Feb 9, 2017 at 21:11
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    If you have the top 100, check off the states covered by that data. If you then edit your question, asking for the states you don't have data for, you might be more likely to get help.
    – justCal
    Feb 10, 2017 at 21:46

1 Answer 1

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Census information from 1950 can be read in Census of Population: 1950: Number of inhabitants, By United States. Bureau of the Census

Table 24, pages 1-48 thru 1-64 contains the populations of each city in each state, alphabetical by state. Whatever you need is in there.

On a guess at what you don't have, here's some excerpts:

 - ALASKA                       Anchorage       11,254
 - ARKANSAS                     Little Rock     102,213
 - HAWAII                       Honolulu        248,034
 - IDAHO                        Boise           34,393
 - MAINE                        Portland        77,634
 - MISSISSIPPI                  Jackson         98,271
 - MONTANA                      Great Falls     39,214
 - NEVADA                       Reno            32,497
 - NEW HAMPSHIRE                Manchester      82,732
 - NEW MEXICO                   Albuquerque     96,815
 - NORTH DAKOTA                 Fargo           38,256
 - SOUTH CAROLINA               Columbia        86,914
 - SOUTH DAKOTA                 Sioux Falls     32,695
 - VERMONT                      Burlington      33,155
 - WEST VIRGINIA                Charleston      73,501
 - WYOMING                      Cheyenne        31,935

Any other states you need, should be in the linked table.

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