Some of the oldest historical data for Hopkinsville’s count in a U.S. census dates to 1810, just 14 years after the town’s founding. That year, the census recorded 131 residents of the Christian County seat.
Twenty years later, the population had increased more than tenfold, to 1,263.
Since 1810, the city’s population has grown with each decennial census.
The year before the Civil War broke out, Hopkinsville’s population was 2,289, according to a Wikipedia listing for Hopkinsville’s demographics.
In 1900 the population was 7,280.
The city saw its largest decade climb between 1950 and 1960, when the census count increased from 12,526 to 19,465.
The 1970s also had a notable surge in population, from 21,395 in 1970 to 27,318 in 1980.
Hopkinsville’s population in the last census, in 2010, was 31,577.
The 2020 Census count is underway now. Here’s a story that explains how residents can be counted.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
