There must have been a considerable number of people at this early time, toward the end of the first generation. The increase of the Children of Israel in Egypt during four generations may be referred to for the sake of comparison. It is, of course, mostly indefinite. The number of persons who went with Jacob to the Land of Goshen was seventy (Exodus 12:38), glad to escape their taskmasters.
The figures upon which to venture an estimate of the total number of Jaredites at this time are also very indefinite. The Brother of Jared, his wife and twenty-two children; Jared, his wife and twelve children; their friends who numbered twenty-two or eleven couples with say, forty children between them—make a hundred souls in all comprising the original company. If we now assume that they multiplied at a rate similar to that of the Israelites in Egypt, the total number of Jaredites at the end of the first generation must have been considerable. A guess as to number would be however of little value. But the total, whatsoever it was, made a census desirable, and necessitated a popular decision as to what form of government to adopt for the benefit of all.