Introduction

Cambridge University Press is proud to announce the publication of the Millennial Edition of the Historical Statistics of the United States in both print and electronic versions.

The last edition of the Historical Statistics of the United States was published by the Census Bureau in 1975. When the Census Bureau decided in the early 1990's that it would not publish a new edition of Historical Statistics, a team of renowned social scientists came together with Cambridge University Press to create a new edition. More than 200 of the nation's leading economists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and other scholars contributed to the Millennial Edition of Historical Statistics. This new edition adds thirty years of data and contains coverage of topics that received little or no coverage in the 1975 edition: American Indians, slavery, poverty, race, and ethnicity. The most recent scholarship has been brought to bear in every table.

Furthermore the electronic edition has been designed to give users a variety of means to search and navigate the vast amount of data in the Historical Statistics. Users will be able to graph individual tables or to combine data from different tables into "custom tables" and to download tables for use in spreadsheets and other applications.

We are certain that the new edition of the Historical Statistics will be received as a major tool for understanding the American past.