Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/230

 THE MORTALITY STATISTICS OF THE CENSUS IN RELATION TO OCCUPATIONS.

FOR the first time the census report on mortality and vital statistics furnishes data showing the influence of occupation upon the death rate, and some of the principal features of this part of the report are outlined below. This report has been delayed a long time owing to the necessity of waiting for the completion of the population data relative to occupations for the computation of the death rates in necessary details.

The record of deaths for the United States, as a whole, and consequently the data concerning occupations for the whole country are incomplete and unsatisfactory, because of the impos- sibility of securing an accurate return of all deaths occurring in localities where such returns depended upon a canvass made by the enumerators; but for about one-third of the population the data concerning deaths were secured by transcribing local regis- tration records, based upon physicians' certificates, and for this proportion of the population, and for such areas, the data are fairly accurate.

The area covered by this class of returns, and designated as the "registration area," consists of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, New- York, New Jersey, and Delaware, the District of Columbia, and eighty-three cities in other states, which are enumerated in an appended list.

The total population of this registration area was 19,659,440 of whom about 7,837,000 were males ten years of age and over, 5,809,803, or 74.13 per cent, being reported as engaged in occupations included in the classification adopted for the mor- tality statistics. The total number of deaths of males at ten years of age and over, in this area, was 124,591, and of these 71,346, or 57.26 per cent., were reported as engaged in the des-

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