During the first half of the nineteenth century, the number of Americans employed by others, in agricultural and nonagricultural pursuits, increased markedly. Nonagricultural employment grew particularly rapidly. Off the farm, between 1820 and 1850 the number of persons working rose from approximately 800,000 to slightly less than 3 million. Over the same period the number of agricultural workers increased at a lower rate, from slightly over 2 million in 1820 to almost 5 million in 1850. By midcentury, on and off the farm, it seems likely that the proportion of productively engaged Americans employed by others – about one-third in 1820 – had increased to about one-half. In the Eastern industrializing states (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York) the proportion was probably closer to three-fourths.