This volume present statistics on the number of inhabitants for States, counties, and minor civil divisions (townships, etc.), with separate figures for cities and other incorporated places, for unincorporated places, for wards of cities 5,000 inhabitants or more, and for urbanized areas. In addition to separate chapters for the States and the District of Columbia, there are also separate chapters for Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, and one for American Samoa, the Canal Zone, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. In the United States Summary chapter, the population data for the several States, Territories, possessions, etc., are brought together.

The major portion of the information compiled from the Census of Population of 1950 is contained in this volume and Volume II, Characteristics of the Population. These final volumes first appeared in the form of three series of State bulletins: Series P–A, “Number of inhabitants”; Series P–B, “General Characteristics”; and Series P–C, “Detailed characteristics.”

Population Volume I comprises the Series P–A bulletins, thereby providing in a single publication the distribution of the Nation’s inhabitants among in within the States in the Territories, possessions, etc.