Where in the World Do Ackleys Live?

I'm kind of a numbers guy, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the number of Ackleys around the world and what countries they live in. I've also put together some rough figures on the number of Ackleys alive throughout American history (insofar as they can be supported by documentation).

From the table below, you can see that there are just under 9,000 Ackleys throughout the world [2].

Table 1: World Population of Ackleys from http://forebears.io/surnames/ackley#nations2014 

To put that number in perspective, there are about 7.125 billion people living in the world right now, so Ackleys represent only 0.000126% of the world's population -- we are pretty rare! The surname Chang is the most frequently occurring name globally -- there are over 76,000,000 people with that name, which is a little over 1% of the world's population [2].

Not surprisingly, the huge majority of Ackleys live in the United States, but what is surprising is the country that holds the number 2 spot -- Tanzania. I would have expected England to be #2, but England is all the way down at #6. For those of you unfamiliar with Tanzania, it is in Eastern Africa, and is where Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, is located. A personal side note -- both my dad and daughter have been to Tanzania and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (on separate trips). I wish I had known about these numbers at the time they were there -- I would have asked them to look into it. Tanzania was ruled by Great Britain starting after World War I, and British rule ended in 1961. This is only speculation, but it seems likely that the name must have been introduced during that time.

A Breakdown of Ackleys Currently in the United States

This is not real scientific, but I went to www.whitepages.com and searched for Ackley by state and got the following breakdown of Ackleys in each of the states [1]:

Table 2: Ackleys by State compiled for data on www.whitepages.com

The numbers don't add all the way up to the 8,210 reported in the first table, but not all children are included in the white pages so that can explain the shortfall. From our beginnings in Connecticut, you can see that there are now Ackleys in all 50 states; New York has the most with 667, while Mississippi only has 1 (he must be a lonely guy!).

History of Ackleys in America

The table below shows the number of Ackleys in each of the states over the history of the U.S. Federal Census. Note that the years with yellow headings are those years where only the heads of household were identified by name, while the years with blue headings are the years where every individual was recorded by name. For that reason, you'll see that the total Ackleys for the years in yellow are much lower than for the years in blue. In the body of the table, all cells with no Ackleys are color coded red, while the cells with some positive number of Ackleys are color coded green. The table is arranged so that the states with the most years where Ackleys were present in the state are near the top, while states with the fewest years with Ackleys present are toward the bottom. I got these numbers by doing an exact search on Ancestry for the Ackley surname by state in each census year, so as mentioned above this is not entirely scientific, but it is as close as I could get given the data available [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]. 

Table 3. Ackleys by State from U.S. Federal Census 1790-1940

As would be expected, the presence of Ackleys in the states tends to follow the expansion of the United States westward. My Ackleys followed this pattern; started in Connecticut, moved to New York, then Ohio, then Michigan, and finally Wisconsin. One other thing to notice is that New York has been the most populous state in terms of Ackleys throughout U.S. history since 1810, so it is not surprising that there are more Ackleys in New York now than in any other state.

Ackleys in England

Although the data available from the England census is not as extensive as the U.S. census, I think it is worth taking a look at the changes in the population of Ackleys in England; however, the numbers are much smaller than in the U.S., so I have left them at the country level. These numbers also come from census records on Ancestry [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25]:

Table 4: Ackleys from England Census 1841-1911

One thing to notice from this data is that the number of Ackleys in England has actually declined since the last census for which data is available (from 87 in 1911 to 75 in 2014), while in the U.S. the number has more than doubled (from 4,097  in 1940 to 8,210 in 2014). The total population in England grew from 42,000,000 to 64,000,000 during that time, while the total U.S. population during that time went from 132,000,000 to 317,000,000. I don't have an explanation for these phenomena, nor can I draw any conclusions, but the numbers do show the contrast between the growth (or lack thereof) in the number of Ackleys in the two countries.

Discussion Questions

• Does anyone have a plausible explanation for the relatively large number of Ackleys in Tanzania?
• How did your Ackleys migrate in the United States?

Link of the Day

This is a link to the website I used to get statistics on the number of Ackleys worldwide. You can search for any surname to see how many there are and where they live. There is also a short history of each surname.

http://forebears.io/surnames/ackley#nations2014

Quote of the Day

"Never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning." 

-- Anthony Trollope (19th century English novelist)

Sources

1. www.whitepages.com
2. forebears.io
3. Ancestry.com. 1790 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
4. Ancestry.com. 1800 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
5. Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
6. Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
7. Ancestry.com. 1830 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
8. Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. 
9. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
10. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
11. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
12. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 
13. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
14. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
15. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
16. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.
17. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
18. Ancestry.com. 1841 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2010.
19. Ancestry.com. 1851 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
20. Ancestry.com. 1861 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
21. Ancestry.com. 1871 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
22. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1881 England Census[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
23. Ancestry.com. 1891 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
24. Ancestry.com. 1901 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
25. Ancestry.com. 1911 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.