The U.S. Has a New Center: Hartville, Missouri

The center cannot hold.

1 minute read

November 18, 2021, 12:00 PM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


A map showing the location of Hartville, Missouri.

SevenMaps / Shutterstock

The U.S. Census Bureau this week announced the new center of population for the United States s a location near Hartville, a town of about 600 people in central southern Missouri.

The new center of population balance for the country is based on the 2020 Census population of 331.4 million, according to a Census Bureau press release announcing the change. The tradition of calculating the center of the country's population dates back to 1790, when the center was located in Kent County, Maryland, 23 miles east of Baltimore. The movement of the center across the decades tracks the migration of the U.S. population south and west.

The Census Bureau also calculates centers of population for each state, county, census tract and census block group, all of which can be found at the Center of Population webpage.

An article by Summer Ballantine for the Associated Press provides news coverage of the announcement.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021 in U.S. Census Bureau

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