Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: Winter/Spring 2007 Volume 44 Numbers 1&2, Page 4

The Development of Tredyffrin

Page 4

Tredyffrin Population

The 1715 tax records are the first data surviving on the population of Tredyffrin Township. At that time there were 22 taxpayers (i.e. landowners) in the township. Based on later information on family size, this gives an estimated population of 130. By 1760 the number of landowners had risen to 76. It was not until the 1790s that the population reached 1,000.

The population continued to grow slowly in the first half of the 19th century. It showed a small dip in the Civil War years, and then the growth rate increased, except for the decades of war and depression in the 1910s, 30s, and 40s. The biggest growth was in the period 1950 to 1960 when the population more than doubled in size. Recently the growth rate has decreased. Tredyffrin now has the largest population and number of housing units of any township or borough in Chester County.

The average size of a farm in 1760 was 100 acres but only 35 to 40% of the land was cleared. By 1850 the average size of agricultural landholding had dropped to 84 acres, 80% of which was cleared.

The first U.S. census was taken in 1790. At that time Tredyffrin had 986 residents in 157 households. In 2000 the township had 29,062 residents in its 12,698 acres.

Since the first census there have been only 2 decades when the Tredyffrin population has not increased. The first was the period of the Civil War. The second decrease was during the 1970s. During this decade the number of households increased by over 20%, but the average age shot up. The decrease in the number of people less than 18 years old was greater than the increase in the older population. It has been suggested that the availability of oral contraceptives reduced the birth rate significantly during the decade.