Total Population
This chart depicts New England’s population in each decade of the 20th century and the total population of both New England and the nation since 1901. While the region’s population has more than doubled, the total U.S. population has nearly quadrupled. Consequently, New Englanders now represent a smaller share of the total U.S. population than they did in 1901, dropping from 7.3 percent to less than 5 percent.
The chart also illustrates each state’s contribution to New England’s total population. Throughout the last century, Massachusetts and Connecticut represented the greatest share of the region’s population, and in the year 2007 hosted 70 percent of New England’s residents.