Depends on what you call a "computer". The first electronic calculating machine sold by the company now known as IBM was for the census, and it was prior to WWI.

Edit: we need to fight back on this idea that the military drives technological innovation. That's only true because of the shitty values our society has.

[–] optissima@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The German one?

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago

Hollerith was American-born to German immigrants. The census in question was also the 1890 US census.

It's a cool story. With the rise in population, the 1890 census was not predicted to be completed before they had to start the 1900 census. With Hollerith's machine, it was instead done in record time.