The population spine

1850 — 2025, FROM THE CENSUS VOLUMES

Every count below was read in the census volumes themselves: Before the federal series opens, the town's growth is carried by local counts and the city history: 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 De Kever'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 own historical tables begin the place in 1850. The federal series then runs, census by census: 1850, 1,412; 1860, 1,488; 1870, 2,617; 1880, 2,640; 1890, 3,371; 1900, 5,560; 1910, 11,886; 1920, 15,195; 1930, 28,630; 1940, 28,298; 1950, 32,913; 1960, 33,361; 1970, 35,517; 1980, 40,201; 1990, 42,608; 2000, 46,557; 2010, 48,252; 2020, 51,063. Two steps built the modern city: 1910, up 113.8 percent on the Great Annexation and the factory boom; and 1930, up 88.4 percent — the fastest-growing city in Indiana in the 1920s, by the city history's account. Against the whole series stands exactly one decline: 1940, down 332 people, 1.2 percent, the Depression's single mark on the curve. The 2020 count of 51,063 is the most people Mishawaka has ever held, and the Census Bureau's current estimate — labeled an estimate, of the Vintage 2025 series — puts the city at 51,226 on July 1, 2025, computed from an estimates base of 51,102 that is the Bureau's working figure and not the census count.

The conflicts in this series are printed, not smoothed. The 1921 Polk directory, expressly quoting "the United States census reports," gives a series that 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 (the 1910 increase of 6,326 over 1900, for instance, is consistent only with 11,886 and 5,560). 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 difference is named here and left to the Population section's page-image check of the 1950 bulletin to settle finally. At 1970 the census volume prints 35,517 in three separate tables; the figure 36,060 carried in modern compilations appears in the Bureau's own 1980 preliminary report as a revised 1970 count, and both are printed — the city was counted at 35,517 in 1970 and carried at 36,060 thereafter. No figure in this entry has been averaged, adjusted or silently chosen between.

Sources:

1. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census (1940), Vol. I, Number of Inhabitants — the cities table: Mishawaka 1940: 28,298; 1930: 28,630; 1920: 15,195; 1910: 11,886, with its increase columns.
2. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1950 Census, Number of Inhabitants: Indiana, Table 4 (cities of 10,000 or more from earliest census to 1950) — the full series 1850–1950, its increases checking at every step; Table 8 (wards) for the 1950 figure 32,913.
3. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Population: 1970, Vol. I, Part 16 (Indiana), Tables 6, 7 and 8 — 1970: 35,517 and 1960: 33,361, with the 1900–1970 historical series and the annexed-area accounting (34,262 in the 1960 area, 1,255 in the annexed area).
4. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 Census of Population and Housing, CPH-2-16 (Indiana), Table 5 — 1990: 42,608; 1980: 40,201.
5. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171), Table PL1, and the Census 2000 DP-1 profile for Mishawaka city — 2000: 46,557. Census Bureau products for 2010 (48,252) and 2020 (51,063, as "Population, Census, April 1, 2020" in QuickFacts).
6. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Mishawaka city, Indiana (Vintage 2025) — population estimate 51,226 at July 1, 2025; estimates base 51,102 at April 1, 2020; labeled estimates.
7. Polk's South Bend city directory (1921) — the pre-1850 counts (328 in 1835, 756 in 1838, 1,166 in 1840) 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 as carried in 1981.