Students played the first game of basketball developed by James Naismith on December 21, 1891. Today, basketball is one of the most popular high school sports in the United States, with nearly 900,000 boys and girls participating on school teams.

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Born in Canada in 1861, James Naismith was an outstanding athlete who graduated from Montreal's McGill University in 1887 and earned a religion degree from Presbyterian College in Montreal in 1890. Later that year, he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, to study physical education at the YMCA Training School—known today as Springfield College. During a summer session at the school, one of Naismith's professors challenged him and his classmates to develop a new, safe, and easy-to-learn sport for students that could be played indoors during the cold winter by artificial light.

Naismith borrowed aspects of several sports to develop his new game using a soccer ball and wooden peach basket "goals."  His 13 rules for the game of ‘basket ball’ covered how the ball moved about the court, actions that constituted fouls, game timing, scoring, the referee's duties, and other aspects of play. Satisfied with the guide he produced, Naismith asked 18 students—two teams of nine each—to play the first game in the school's gymnasium on December 21, 1891.  He published the rules for the new game in the YMCA training school's newspaper Triangle on January 15, 1892.

Soon after its introduction, Naismith and other early proponents of the sport refined the game's play and equipment.  Naismith asked A.G. Spalding & Bros. to develop a basketball according to his specifications in 1894.  For more than a decade, players lobbed the ball into closed-bottom baskets or nets that required manual retrieval after scoring each point. Over the following years, the peach baskets were replaced by open-bottomed baskets and then metal rims, while backboards were added and the design of the basket and net continued to evolve into the configuration used today.

As students learned the new game, basketball became a popular indoor sport for both sexes to play during the cold winter months.  Smith College's director of physical education Senda Berenson modified the sport for women and oversaw the first women's college basketball game between the school's freshman and sophomore classes in March 1893.  By the mid-1890s, the first intercollegiate men's and women's games were taking place.  The sport was introduced as a demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri; a men's medal event at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany; and a women's event beginning with the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada.  The National Basketball League, founded in 1898, was an early professional basketball league. Although it and other early professional leagues failed, a later National Basketball League, founded in 1937, merged with the Basketball Association of America in 1949 to create the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA today has 30 teams in the United States and Canada. In 1996, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was founded. Its inaugural 1997 season featured eight teams.

Thanks to James Naismith's ingenuity, millions of Americans are members of school- and community-sponsored basketball teams, watch college and professional basketball games in person or on television, and spend their free time shooting hoops with friends at basketball courts located in cities and towns throughout the United States today.  The National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) action-packed "March Madness" games are so popular that the Division I college championship generates a substantial share of the organization's annual revenue.  Professional basketball is also incredibly popular with fans eager to attend games in person and purchase team merchandise.  During the 2023–24 season, the NBA generated approximately $13 billion in league-wide revenue, while Forbes valued the Golden State Warriors at $8.8 billion.

You can learn more about James Naismith and basketball from Census Bureau data and records such as:

• James Naismith began developing the rules for the game of basketball soon after moving to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1890.  According to the 1890 Census, the population of the western Massachusetts city was 44,179.  According to data collected by the American Community Survey in 2023, Springfield was home to 153,672 people and has several museums, including the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
• Seven years after inventing the game, Naismith became the first basketball coach at the University of Kansas in 1898.  Ironically, with a coaching record of 55 wins and 60 losses over nine seasons, Naismith remains the only Kansas men's basketball coach with a losing record. Two years after Naismith accepted the head coaching position, the 1900 Census reported that Lawrence, Kansas—home to the main campus of the University of Kansas—had a population of 10,862.  Naismith lived in Lawrence until his death in November 1939. The 1940 Census subsequently reported that Lawrence had a population of 14,390.  Today, Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County and the state's sixth-largest city with 96,207 inhabitants.
• In addition to halls of fame for basketball, baseball, football, and hockey, many other sports honor notable athletes with their own halls of fame.  For example, many sports fans enjoy visiting the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in Commack, New York, and the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in Irvine, California.  Other halls of fame include the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island; NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina; National Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
• Basketball courts have traditionally featured hardwood floors.  Hardwood flooring provides the shock absorption, feel underfoot, consistency, and durability that athletes and gymnasium owners prefer.  Data about hardwood floor manufacturers are collected within NAICS sector 321918, Other millwork (including flooring).  In 2022, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series reported there were 1,516 Other millwork (including flooring) establishments in the United States.  That same year, hardwood floor installations were performed by some of the nation's 18,069 Flooring contractors (NAICS 238330).  During the pay period that included March 12, 2022, Flooring contractors reported having 85,815 employees and an annual payroll of more than $4.9 billion.
• The popularity of basketball and player endorsements of sports equipment has created a thriving retail and collectibles market for athletic footwear.  In 2022, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series reported there were 224 Footwear manufacturing (NAICS 316210) establishments in the United States.  During the pay period that included March 12, 2022, these establishments had 9,950 employees and an annual payroll of more than $459 million.
• Speaking of athletic footwear, did you know that the word you use to describe your sports shoes may identify the region of the United States and the world you come from?  For example, athletes in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, shop for "sneakers" before the start of the season.  In Peoria, Illinois, "gym shoes" are on ball players' shopping lists.  In Santa Monica, California, "tennis shoes" are the athletic footwear worn by tennis players as well as participants of many other sports, including basketball, volleyball, track, dodgeball, etc.
  
• In 2022, the Census Bureau's American Community Survey reported there were 72,325,602 children in the United States under age 18. During the 2021-22 school year, the NFHS reported that basketball was one of the nation's most popular high school sports, with 18,428 schools hosting a boys basketball team and 17,901 schools hosting a girls team.  During that year, 521,616 boys and 370,466 girls participated in their schools' basketball programs.
• Many recreational and aspiring all-star basketball players sharpen their skills at some of the nation's fitness and recreational sports centers.  In 2022, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series reported there were 40,786 of these facilities in the United States.  California led the nation with 5,240 establishments, followed by Texas (3,294) and Florida (2,753).
• Not sure what to do when the basketball season ends?  Perhaps you would enjoy visiting Ballville in Ohio's Sandusky County; shooting hoops in the community of Baskett in Henderson County, Kentucky; scoring points visiting Dunkerton in Black Hawk County, Iowa; showing off your footwork while climbing "The Dribbles" at the Custer Gallatin National Forest's Hyalite Canyon near Bozeman, Montana; throwing an airball in Brick Township, New Jersey; or getting "nothing but net" along Iron County, Michigan's Net River.
• The popularity of women's basketball has seen enormous growth in recent years.  In 2024, The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) saw a 305 percent increase in viewership for its 2024 All-Star Game.  Similarly, the NCAA reported that the 2024 women's basketball championship game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks set a women's basketball viewership record with 18.7 million viewers. These viewership records are possible thanks to the widespread ownership of televisions and streaming services.  In 2011, the Survey of Income and Program Participation reported that 98.3 percent of households in the United States had a television. In 2023, data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey showed that 91.3 percent of households had broadband Internet access. Broadband internet allows households to stream sports programming like women's basketball.
  

In his Fourth Annual Message to Congress on December 2, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant urged lawmakers to support conducting the census every 5 instead of every 10 years beginning in 1875.  Grant argued a more frequent count would provide more timely mid-decade statistics and provide a better understanding of the nation in its first century.

Congress did not fund the quinquennial census, but the idea never went away.  With the nationwide implementation of the American Community Survey in 2005, the Census Bureau can now provide data about the nation’s population and housing every year.