This map shows the number of children age 7 to 20 from the 1920 Census. The greater populations of children are on the East coast, mainly New York and Pennsylvania. This helps explain why summer camps and other youth organizations were concentrated in these areas. Additionally, though PA, NY, NJ, and MA, are more populated than VT, NH, and ME, camps were placed in the more northern and less populated spaces due to their outdoor and wilderness access. North Carolina, Georgia, and California were also hot spots for summer camps as they too had larger youth populations.

As most summer camps were located in the North East, it can make sense that their populations were of a majority white youth. However, camps in southern states served mainly white children as well, despite the Black American populations in these areas. This can be explained by the national views on race and the idea of a childhood and summer escape belonging only to white children.

This chart comes from

These two pages come from a pamphlet created by the Southern Railway System advertising summer camps in the Appalachian area in the early 1920’s. Through highlighting the nearby mountain peaks and the summer weather, they emphasize that camps physical locations were placed in wilderness and natural settings with beautiful landscapes.