Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/237

* VITAIi STATISTICS. 189 VITAL STATISTICS. The occupations coming near to the average for all occupied males are physician (060), tailor (089), and bricklayer or nia^on (1001). Among those ranking higli in mortality are brewers (14:i7), hotel servants and innkeepers (1650), potters (1706), and file-makers (1810). Birth Kate. As a rule in old and long-settled countries the birth rate is high where the death rate is high. The converse, however, is not true, a number of countries having a moderate or high birth rate and at the same time a low deatli rale. The birth rate of female children is lower than that of males. It is usual to state these facts by computing the number of males born to every 100 or 1000 females. In general there are from 104 to 106 male childreu born to every 100 female. In the United States there arc no trustworthy sta- tistics of births for any large sections of the population. An indication of the birth rate may be found by computing the number of children under five years of age reported by the census to each 1000 women between fifteen and forty-four. The children under five are selected rather than those under one, because many of the latter class are erroneously reported as one year and a smaller number are omitted by the enumerators. In 1800 there were 520 children in the United States under live years of age to each 1000 women be- tween fifteen and forty-four. In 1000 the ratio had slightly declined to 518, indicating that in the United States, as elsewhere, the birth rate has slightly declined. The figures for the whites fell from 517 to 509, those for the colored, mainly negroes, from 610 to 584, indicating that the birth rate among the colored is decidedly higher than among the white, but that the decline among them has also been more rapid, so that the birth rate of the two races is ap]n-oximating. The facts may be obtained separately at each census for the cities having at least 25,000 in- habitants and for the rural districts. They show that the proportion of children in the rural dis- tricts has been almost stationary, declining in the ten years only from 574 to 572, while the ratio in the cities has declined from 401 to 390, or sev- eral times as rapidl}'. This indicates that the birth rate in cities having at least 25,000 inhabi- tants is lower than it is elsewhere and that the difference between city and country is increasing. Among the whites the ratio of children in the rural districts was the same (559) in 1800 and 1900, the whole decline for that I'ace having come in the cities, where the proportion fell from 407 to 300. Among the colored the proportion fell outside the cities from 672 to 651 and in the cities from 305 to 260. For the colored races, therefore, mainly the neuro. the difference in birth rate between city and country is far greater than it is for the white, the proportion of negro children in cities being much less and the pro- portion of negro children in country districts much greater than the corresponding proportions among the whites. In Washington. D. C. for ex- ample, there were in 1900 25 colored children to every 100 colored women between fifteen and forty-four, 'but 30 white children to every 100 white women. In Maryland, outside Baltimore, there were 67 colored children to 100 colored women and 53 white children to 100 white women, and in Virginia likewise, outside Rich- mond and Norfolk, there were 63 colored and 61 white children to 100 women of corresponding races. The smallest proportion of children under five to 1000 woMion of child-bearing age is found in tile District of Cohiiiiliia (285), California (372), iMassachnsetts (.'iSl), Vermont (382), Rhode Island (301), and New Hampshire (393), indicating what is establishe<l by the figures in detail, that the New England States and the States of the Pacific Coast have at present the lowest birth rate. The highest birth rate is found in North Dakota (754), Indian Territory (742), and Oklahoma (709). They illustrate the general fact that countries or sections which are receiving large numbers of immigrants are also those in whieli large additions to the popu- lation through births are being made. Whether the native population of the United States is maintaining itself by excess of births over deaths is a much disputed question regard- ing which the statistical evidence is so meagre as to alfonl no certain reply. It is probable that in the New Kngland States the native |)opnlation is not maintaining itself, but it is inadmissible to generalize from conditions there to th6se through- out the country. Indeed, the figures for the coun- try as a whole seem to indicate that the native population is increasing from its owni loins. Makkiaoe Rate. In most civilized countries the marriage rate, like the death rate and the birth rate, is slowly declining. With the im- provement of medical knowledge and the intro- duction of sanitary measures the average dura- tion of human life tends to rise, approaching nearer and nearer to the normal limit mentioned by the Psalmist. In consequence, the number ot births requisite to produce a given number of adults tends to decrease. There is little doubt that the food supply and the other necessaries and comforts of life tend to increase, but much if not most of this increase is absorbed in advanc- ing the standard of comfort. As fewer births are needed to maintain or moderately to increase the population, so fewer marriages are needed to accomplish the same end. In some States or countries the marriage rate obtained by comparing the number of marriages with the total population has not declined. Even in them, however, when the more accurate ratio, that between the marriages and the adult population, or better yet the adult unmarried population, is computed, it is usually found that the marriage rate has declined. The United States lacks marriage statistics obtained through registration, and in this, as in other fields of vital statistics, is compelled to rely upon infer- ences derived from the censu.?. Only for the last two censuses, those of 1800 and 1000. has infor- mation on this subject been afforded. Of all persons in the United States rather more than one-third (36.5 per cent.) are married; about 1 in 20 (5.1 per cent.) are widowed; and 3 in 1000 (0.3) are divorced, the remainder, not quite three-fifths (57.9 per cent.), being single. The proportion of each of these classes, except the last, has increased in the last ten years: the married from 35.7 per cent., the widowed from 4.7 per cent., and the divorced from 0.2 per cent. This seems contrary to the general tendency al- ready mentioned. A part of this change is due to the decreasing proportion of children and in consequence the increasing proportion of per- sons of marriageable age. Yet even when at- tention is confined to the population over fif-