East St. Louis Action Research Project
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
History of East St. Louis
Population
General population trends can be seen with the growth of the county. The population of St. Clair Co. began small with approximately 1,030 people in 1837. The population then changed with the rise and fall of industry. By 1890 the population in ESL was approximately 14,938 people. The population for the county, between 1900 and 1950, continuously rose with the masses of industry moving into the area. The population decreased slightly in ESL after the depression began due to some of the industries closing. W.W.II brought some of that back, but the population of the city began to decline after this. Between 1950 and 1964 the population of ESL dropped by half. After 1960, the population numbers begin to shrink for the county to the present day figures of approximately 40,944 people.
(County populations)
1900 - 29665
1940 - 75609
1950 - 82295
1960 - 81712 slipping
1970 - 69996
1980 - 55200
1990 - 40253 being disputed (Tapestry 104)
Document author(s) : Barb Baugher, Diane Timlin, Mark Child
HTML by : Barb Baugher, Diane Timlin, Mark Child
Last modified: 29 October, 1995
History of East St. Louis
East St. Louis Action Research Project
