Prescott Population Perspectives

Arizona has seen explosive population growth throughout the past 150 years.  The first 50 years of Arizona's so-called "modern history" from 1870 to 1920 saw some truly eye-popping demographics.

Interestingly, Prescott's population trends showed some counter-intuitive numbers during that early time span.

Note that Prescott's population actually declined twice from 1880 to 1890 and again from 1910 to 1920.  During each of those same time periods, overall Yavapai County population growth mirrored statewide trends.

Note that while Prescott's population declined by 77 people between 1880-1890, Yavapai County's population expanded by over 3,000!  Again from 1910 to 1920, Prescott showed a decline of 82 people while the Yavapai County Census figures showed a gain from 15,996 to 24,016, a gain of over 8,000 people!

During those two decades when Prescott population was languishing, Arizona's explosive growth continued unabated.  From 1880 to 1890, Arizona grew by almost 48,000 people and in the go-go decade between 1910 and 1930 Arizona added almost 130,000 new residents, a whopping 63% increase.

Meanwhile, let's take a look at how Prescott stacked up compared to other Arizona cities, towns and "community zones."

Of course, the state's largest 1920 population winner was Phoenix with 29,053 people.  Throw in Mesa, Gilbert, Glendale and Tempe and The Valley could boast almost 37,000 residents.

The Bisbee-Douglas area was Arizona's second most populous area with around 20,000 people.  The Globe-Miami copper community numbered around 14,000. Prescott's nearby neighbors in the Jerome, Clarkdale and Cottonwood cluster tallied slightly over 10,000 in 1920.

By 1920 Prescott could perhaps have been described as a "medium-sized" city. For the truly curious here are the Yavapai County 1920 U.S. Census numbers by community and precinct.

The source for these screen clips and underlying data is:

https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1920/bulletins/demographics/population-az-number-of-inhabitants.pdf