Page:1899 The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/44

16 In order to avail ourselves of the best statistics it will therefore be necessary at times to regard as urban population all the inhabitants of places of 2,000 or more.

As the foregoing table indicates, Germany divides the urban population into classes. The practice is a common one among official statisticians, but they seldom agree on the lines of division. In most cases 10,000 appears as one limit; France and Austria add 50,000, etc. But in nearly every instance, a separate class is made of cities that exceed 100,000 souls in population. Such cities are rightly called great-cities (Grossstädte, les grandes villes). They differ from smaller cities in that their influence extends not merely beyond their county, but beyond the commonwealth or province, becoming national or even international, Hence the grande ville has become recognized not only in the official statistics, and in the writings of savants, but also in the legislation of many modern states. The Institut International de Statisque made it the only sub-class in the urban portion of the population.

The discussion on classification of population according to the size of dwelling-place may be summarized in the following manner:

One point still calls for notice regarding the comparability of urban statistics, namely, the area that constitutes the urban unit. In American usage, outside of New England, it is the incorporated village or city within the township;