The number and composition of the population was stable until 1853, when the national government, after passing a constitution, started a campaign to attract European immigration to populate the country. This state policy lasted several decades. At first the number of immigrants was modest compared to other countries such as the United States (though the number of immigrants was steadily increasing as they moved to the rural areas to settle and to found "colonias" like those of Italian, German, Swiss, or French origin), but in the 1870s, due to the economic crisis in Europe, it started to increase, reaching an extremely high rate between 1890 and 1930. Unofficial records show that, during the 1860s, 160,000 immigrants arrived in Argentina, while in the 1880s the net number increased to 841,000, almost doubling the population of the country in that decade.