Less than two years after the 1848 discovery of gold in California, the 1850 Census counted 92,597 people living in the nation's recently admitted 31st state. Fifty years later, 1,485,053 people lived in the "Golden State." By 2020, California was the nation's most populous state, with 39,538,223 people.

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After finding the first gold nugget in the sawmill's tailrace, John Sutter hoped to keep the discovery secret to protect the agricultural empire he was building. The news proved impossible to contain. Rumors of gold near New Helvetia (present-day Sacramento, California) reached San Francisco in March 1848. The New York Herald reported the news on August 19, 1848, noting that gold could be found in abundance and was waiting for miners to arrive to claim it. In his annual message to Congress in December 1848, President James K. Polk confirmed that the territory—ceded by Mexico to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—was rich in gold.

Between 1849 and 1855, thousands of aspiring miners, entrepreneurs, and their families made arduous journeys by land and sea to California. As a result of its rapidly growing population and the Compromise of 1850, California became a state without first being a territory. The vast majority of people arriving in California never "struck it rich." Many followed rumors of other gold and silver strikes, opened businesses supplying mines and miners, and helped open the western United States to settlement. Today, California continues to attract people from across the United States and around the world, making the "Golden State" the nation's most populous state. In the 170 years between 1850 and 2020, the state's population grew from 92,597 to more than 39.5 million.

You can learn more about California's growth, the California Gold Rush, and the nation's mining industry using Census Bureau data and records. For example:

• The California Gold Rush was not America's first gold rush. In 1799, a 12-year-old boy discovered a 17-pound gold nugget in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. The boy's family used the nugget as a doorstop for several years before realizing its value. Commercial mining continued sporadically in the region into the early 20th century.
• In his fourth annual address to the U.S. Congress on December 5, 1848, President James K. Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in California. In response to reports from California, Polk stated that such an "abundance" of gold had been found that the news "would scarcely command belief." Aspiring miners "rushed" to California, causing the state's population to increase by more than 300 percent between 1850 and 1860.
• Sutter's Mill is located along the American River near Coloma. Two years after James W. Marshall discovered gold at the mill, Coloma's population was 588. It grew to 888 in 1860. In 2024, the American Community Survey estimated Coloma's population to be 462. Today, visitors can learn more about the discovery of gold at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.
• The American River's North, Middle, and South forks flow through El Dorado, Placer, and Sacramento counties. In 1860, the total population of these counties was 57,974. In 2025, the Census Bureau estimated that the three counties were home to 2,152,864 people.
• It was often easier to "strike it rich" as a merchant than as a gold miner in California. Selling supplies and services to the state's miners helped make Samuel Brannan (founder of the California Star newspaper), Jonas Clark (founder of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts), Leland Stanford (founder of Stanford University in Stanford, California), Domingo Ghirardelli (chocolatier and coffee merchant), and Levi Strauss wealthy.
• Today, Nevada is the leading gold-producing state in the nation. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Nevada was responsible for 74 percent (4,502,365 troy ounces) of the nation's domestic gold production in 2021. 
• More than three-quarters of the world's gold is used to manufacture jewelry (NAICS 339910). The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series reported that there were 1,844 jewelry and silverware manufacturing establishments (NAICS 339910) in the United States in 2023. They often sold their wares through some of the nation's 19,897 jewelry stores (NAICS 448310).
• The National Mining Association reported that mining (including coal, metal ores, and non-metallic minerals) accounted for $194.4 billion of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021. 
• As of June 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury reported that the U.S. government's total gold reserve was nearly 261.5 million fine troy ounces of gold. The book value of the gold (calculated at the statutory rate of $42.22 per fine troy ounce) was approximately $11 billion. The market value of that gold (based on a market price of approximately $4,000–$4,100 per ounce) exceeded $1 trillion.

In 2017, the United States was home to 3,403 firms in the Mining (except oil and gas) sector (NAICS 212). That year, these firms employed 180,331 people and had sales, value of shipments, or revenue of more than $83.6 billion.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that domestic gold mines (NAICS 212221) produced approximately 245 metric tons of gold valued at about $9.9 billion. During the same year, silver mines (NAICS 212222) produced more than 1,020 metric tons of silver valued at $564 million.