Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 78.djvu/419

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announcements have been made of the population of the states and of some of the cities as determined by the thirteenth census. The population of continental United States is 91,972,267, as compared with 75,994,575 in 1900, an increase of 21 per cent. This is the smallest rate of increase hitherto recorded, but is practically the same as for the preceding decade. The accompanying chart shows the percentages of increase, those prior to the first census of 1790 being somewhat rough estimates. Apart from drops at the time of the war of revolution and the civil war the percentage remained very constant for two centuries, but in spite of the large immigration it has dropped in the past fifty years from 35 to 21.

It is unsafe to make any prediction from such figures but it is clear that the increase in population has been maintained by immigration and by a falling death rate, and it is doubtful whether these factors will continue to make up for the declining birth rate. In 1820 there were 489 children under 16 years old among each thousand of the white population—that is, about half were children. In 1900 the number of children had fallen to 356 and in New England to 291. Or, to put the matter in another form, there were in