U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for April 30

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

LOUISANA PURCHASE

Profile America — Wednesday, April 30th. This is the anniversary of the one of the greatest real estate deals in history — one that doubled the size of the U.S. and put the nation in position to become a world power. The year was 1803, and the deal was the Louisiana Purchase. The young U.S. under President Thomas Jefferson bought nearly 830,000 square miles from France at the cost of four cents an acre. The land stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Thirteen states are made up of the land involved. Appropriately enough, Louisiana became a state on this date in 1812. At the time, just 77,000 people lived there. Now, Louisiana is home to just over 4.6 million. You can find more facts about America's people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at www.census.gov.

Sources: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 28   
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22000.html

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau