=================+============+============+============ | 1850. | 1890. | 1900. +------------+------------+------------- Arkansas | 209,897 | 1,128,179 | 1,311,564 California | 92,597 | 1,208,130 | 1,485,053 Colorado | | 412,198 | 539,700 Idaho | | 84,385 | 161,772 Iowa | 192,214 | 1,911,896 | 2,231,853 Kansas | | 1,427,096 | 1,470,495 Louisiana | 517,762 | 1,118,587 | 1,381,625 Minnesota | 6,077 | 1,301,826 | 1,751,394 Missouri | 682,044 | 2,679,184 | 3,106,665 Montana | | 132,159 | 343,329 Nebraska | | 1,058,910 | 1,066,300 Nevada | | 45,761 | 42,335 North Dakota | | 182,719 | 319,146 Oregon | 13,294 | 313,767 | 413,536 South Dakota | | 328,808 | 401,570 Texas | 212,592 | 2,235,523 | 3,048,710 Utah | 11,380 | 207,905 | 276,749 Washington | | 349,390 | 518,103 Wyoming | | 60,705 | 92,531 Alaska | | 32,052 | 63,592 Arizona | | 59,620 | 122,931 Indian Territory | | 180,182 | 392,060 New Mexico | 61,547 | 153,593 | 195,310 Oklahoma | | 61,834 | 398,331 +------------+------------+------------ Total | 1,999,404 | 16,674,409 | 21,034,654 -----------------+------------+------------+------------ Louisiana, with 11.4 inhabitants to the square mile, was the most thickly settled state in the West in 1850. Missouri followed with 9.9; Arkansas with 4, and Iowa with 3.5. The average for the Union was 7.9. That year the little State of Delaware, with 91,532 inhabitants, boasted of one two hundred and sixty-third part of the total population of the Union. Where was Oregon with about one seventh of Delaware's population and Minnesota with less than one half of Oregon's? In 1900 the density of the Union was 25.6 inhabitants per square mile. Three western states, Missouri, with 45.2, Iowa, with 40.2, and Louisiana, with 30.4, exceeded the general average. In the remainder of the states the density ranged from 0.4 in Nevada to 24.7 in Arkansas. The colored population of the trans-Mississippi region is largely confined to the states in the southern belt, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In the Pacific states the colored population is principally Chinese and Japanese.