1890
The 1890 Census was the Eleventh. The Census Bureau provides a list of the 100 largest cities in that year.
| Rank | City | State | Population | Notes |
| 1 | New York | New York | 1,515,301 | This is the last census before New York was consolidated into The Five Boroughs (therefore the figure is that of New York County (which at the time consisted of Manhattan and what later would become The Bronx). |
| 2 | Chicago | Illinois | 1,099,850 | Chicago overtakes Philadelphia as the nation's second most populous city and likely becomes the second city in the nation to surpass the 1 million mark. |
| 3 | Philadelphia | Pennsylvania | 1,046,964 | |
| 4 | Brooklyn | New York | 806,343 | This is the last census where the City of Brooklyn is independent. It would be absorbed into New York City. |
| 5 | St. Louis | Missouri | 451,770 | |
| 6 | Boston | Massachusetts | 448,477 | |
| 7 | Baltimore | Maryland | 434,439 | |
| 8 | San Francisco | California | 298,997 | |
| 9 | Cincinnati | Ohio | 296,908 | |
| 10 | Cleveland | Ohio | 261,353 | First appearance in the top 10. |
Read more about this topic: Largest Cities In The United States By Population By Decade