The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
1850 — 2020
The whole table: Before the federal series opens, the town's growth is carried by local counts — about 100 people in 1834, 328 in 1835 and 756 in 1838 as the 1921 Polk city directory reports them, some 862 by the end of the 1830s in the city history's account, and 1,166 in 1840, again the directory's figure, which says it quotes the United States census reports, though no federal volume pulled for this record returns Mishawaka separately in 1840 and the Bureau's historical tables begin the place in 1850. The federal series then runs as printed below. Percentage changes are computed from the counts as printed; the county is St. Joseph County, from the census series printed in full in the South Bend record; the township is Penn Township, from the state compilation described in the township entry, and begins in 1890 because that is where that compilation's township series begins.
| Census | City of Mishawaka | City change | City share of county | Penn Township | City share of township |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1850 | 1,412 | — | 12.9% | — | — |
| 1860 | 1,488 | +5.4% | 8.1% | — | — |
| 1870 | 2,617 | +75.9% | 10.3% | — | — |
| 1880 | 2,640 | +0.9% | 8.0% | — | — |
| 1890 | 3,371 | +27.7% | 7.9% | 5,678 | 59.4% |
| 1900 | 5,560 | +64.9% | 9.4% | 8,117 | 68.5% |
| 1910 | 11,886 | +113.8% | 14.1% | 15,410 | 77.1% |
| 1920 | 15,195 | +27.8% | 14.7% | 17,279 | 87.9% |
| 1930 | 28,630 | +88.4% | 17.9% | 32,511 | 88.1% |
| 1940 | 28,298 | −1.2% | 17.5% | 33,483 | 84.5% |
| 1950 | 32,913 | +16.3% | 16.1% | 42,938 | 76.7% |
| 1960 | 33,361 | +1.4% | 14.0% | 47,330 | 70.5% |
| 1970 | 35,517 | +6.5% | 14.5% | 53,276 | 66.7% |
| 1980 | 40,201 | +13.2% | 16.6% | 56,471 | 71.2% |
| 1990 | 42,608 | +6.0% | 17.2% | 59,879 | 71.2% |
| 2000 | 46,557 | +9.3% | 17.5% | 64,322 | 72.4% |
| 2010 | 48,252 | +3.6% | 18.1% | 66,198 | 72.9% |
| 2020 | 51,063 | +5.8% | 18.7% | 68,698 | 74.3% |
Three readings of the table are worth stating before the eras are narrated. First, the shape: the city multiplied thirty-six times across the series, and nearly all of the multiplication happened in five decades — the 1860s, the 1890s, the 1900s, the 1910s' annexation census of 1910, and the 1920s — after which the curve flattens into the long staircase of single-digit decades. Second, the exceptions: the near-standstill of the 1870s (+0.9 percent in 1880, a decade the great fire of 1872 bisects), the 1950s (+1.4 percent in 1960, the decade Mishawaka's growth moved into its township instead), and the single decline of 1940. Third, the modern line: the city's share of its county has risen in every census since 1960 — 14.0 percent to 18.7 percent — because the city kept growing while South Bend shrank; the two cities together counted 154,516 people in 2020, of whom Mishawaka held a third, against the fifth it held in 1960.
The conflicts in this series are printed, not smoothed — they stand in the Story of Mishawaka section, and they are carried here because this section is the count of record. The 1921 Polk directory, expressly quoting "the United States census reports," departs from the census volumes at four decades — 1860: 1,498 against the volumes' 1,488; 1890: 3,375 against 3,371; 1900: 5,500 against 5,560; 1910: 11,908 against 11,886 — and the volumes govern, their own increase columns checking arithmetically at every step. At 1950 the volumes print 32,913 — in the 1950 bulletin's own ward table and again in the 1970 volume's historical table, whose increase of 4,615 over 1940 is consistent only with that figure — while modern compilations of the Bureau's data carry 32,918, five higher; the volumes are followed here, and the South Bend record's boundary table, which prints 32,918 — the difference stands unmerged between the two records. At 1970 the census volume prints 35,517 in three separate tables, and the table above is computed on it — the decade's change is +6.5 percent, and the 1980 change on the same basis is +13.2 percent. The figure 36,060 carried in modern compilations appears in the Bureau's own 1980 preliminary report as a revised 1970 count; on that basis the changes read +8.1 and +11.5 percent, and the South Bend record's boundary table prints the series that way. Both bases are named here; neither is averaged into the other, and the revision is the Bureau's, not this record's.
The Census Bureau's current estimates continue the line by a step, printed as estimates and never as counts: the city at 51,226 on 1 July 2025 (Vintage 2025), computed from an estimates base of 51,102 at 1 April 2020 that is the Bureau's working figure and not the census count of 51,063. The same program's Vintage 2024 series put the city at 51,020 on 1 July 2024, from a base of 51,095 — the two vintages are different series and are not blended. The City of Mishawaka's own statistics page prints its own figures on its own basis, among them a "Population Estimates 2020" of 51,201 beside the census counts of 2010 and 2000; it is the city's figure, printed here as the city's, and it is not the census count.
Sources:
- U.S. Bureau of the Census — the census volumes read first-hand for the Story of Mishawaka section of this history: Sixteenth Census (1940), Vol. I (1930: 28,630; 1920: 15,195; 1910: 11,886; 1940: 28,298); 1950 Census, Number of Inhabitants: Indiana, Tables 4 and 8 (the series 1850–1950; 1950: 32,913); Census of Population: 1970, Vol. I, Part 16 (Indiana), Tables 6–8 (1970: 35,517; 1960: 33,361); 1990 Census, CPH-2-16, Table 5 (1990: 42,608; 1980: 40,201); Census 2000 Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) and DP-1 (2000: 46,557); the censuses of 2010 (48,252) and 2020 (51,063).
- STATS Indiana (Indiana Business Research Center) — "Indiana Township Census Counts, 1890 to 2020," the compilation of the decennial censuses from which the Penn Township and St. Joseph County figures in the township and county columns are taken; the county series as printed in the South Bend record of this history (Forstall's Population of States and Counties for 1830–1990 and the decennial censuses thereafter).
- Polk's South Bend city directory (1921) — the pre-1850 counts and the dissenting series at 1860, 1890, 1900 and 1910, printed as a conflict. 1980 Census of Population and Housing: Preliminary Reports, Indiana (PHC80-P-16) — the revised 1970 count of 36,060.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Mishawaka city, Indiana — population estimate 51,226 at 1 July 2025 and estimates base 51,102 (Vintage 2025); estimate 51,020 at 1 July 2024 and base 51,095 (Vintage 2024); labeled estimates. City of Mishawaka, Information and Statistics page — the city's own "Population Estimates 2020: 51,201," read November 2026.