Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/384

370 By this table it will be seen that the largest increase during the last three decades has been in the Western division, consisting of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California. This division increased its population from 18(J0 to 1870 by 60·02 per cent; in the next decade, 78·46 per cent; and from 1880 to 1890, 71·27 per cent. It is natural that the greatest increase should occur in the division named.

Some of the Southern States did not show as great a percentage of increase as they would have shown had the census of 1870 been more thoroughly correct; but the imperfections of the census of 1870, which imperfections showed an enumeration probably much less than the real population, when compared with the more accurate census of 1880, resulted in an exaggerated increase between those years; consequently, with the census of 1890 compared with the exaggerated increase between 1870 and 1880, the relative percentage of growth is apparently less; yet, on the whole, the Southern divisions show very satisfactory percentages, as will be seen by consulting the last table.

The increase and decrease of population during the decade of years from 1880 to 1890 show casually that in a very large number of counties the population has really decreased, and an examination of the figures by counties gives proof that in four hundred and fifty-five there has been an apparent loss of inhabitants, arising from an actual decrease in population or from a reduction of territory, the latter being the case in fifty instances, consequent upon the formation of new counties. A real loss occurred in only about one hundred and thirty counties, such losses occurring mainly in the central parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, northern New Jersey and eastern Virginia, and some localities scattered through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Considerable loss has occurred in southern Michigan and Wisconsin, while eastern Iowa has largely experienced a diminution in population. The ebb and flow of mining operations have resulted in a good deal of change in the totals of mining counties, as, for instance, such counties in Colorado have very generally lost in population, and with the exception of two counties the number of inhabitants in the entire State of Nevada has decreased. The statement as to loss in mining regions is also true of California. The increase, however, in our great Western domains has been over one hundred per cent. The Great Plains have increased rapidly, and so have the agricultural areas of the Cordilleran plateau. Northern Michigan, western and southern Florida, Arkansas, southern Missouri, and central Texas, exhibit a growth that is really phenomenal, and the southern Appalachian region has increased its population largely. Southern New