Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-12-02
The Growth of the United States.

ent of the last census, contributes to the October Century paper abounding in interesting and important facts gleaned from the census returns since the first enumeration in 1790. In discussing the condition of the United States, at the tenth census in 1880, he says:
 The period between 1850 and 1880 has been marked by the astonshingly rapid spread of population over the vast region brought under the flag of the United States by the purchase of Louisiana, the annexation of Texas and the sessions from Mexico. The 980,000 square miles of territory occupied by settlements in 1850 have become 1,570,- 900. Of these, 3S4, ,820 have between 2 and inhabitants to the square mile; 73,890 have between $ and IS; 554, 800 between IS and 45; 232,0 ,010 between 45 and 90; while 24, $50 have in excess of 90 inhabitants to the square mile. The population of the United States is now 50, 155, 783. The frontier line of settle ment is, in general, the one hundreth degree of longitude as far north as the forth-second parallel of latitude, and, thence northward. the ninety ninth, and, afterward, the ninety eighth degree.
 The distribution of the population, according to dominant typographical features, may be thus stated: On the immediate Atlantic coast, north, 2,616,- 892; middle. 4,3z5, 1S4; south, 875, 1887; on the Gulf coast, 1,055, ,851; in the hilly and mountainous region of the central Atlantic slope, 2,344, 223; in the immediate region of the lakes, 3,049,- 470; on the table-lands and elevated plateaus of the interior, 5,716, 326; in the south central mountainous region, 2,695,0 in the Ohio Valley, 2,442,792 on the south interior table-lands and plateaus, 3,62S, 478; in the Mississippi belt, south, 710, ,268; north, 1901, ,362; in the southwest central region, 2,952, SOY; in the central region, 1, ,401, ,246; in the prairie region, 5,722. .485; in the Missouri River belt. 835, ,455; on the Western plains, 32S, ,819; in the heavily timbered region of the Northwest, l. 122, ,337; in the Cordilleran region, 932,- S11; on the Pacific coast, 715,7S9.
 Although the territory of the United States extends to the forty-ninth paral- Tel, only one-tenth of the population is found north of sthe forty third. But so dense is the settlement below this line that, by the time the forty-6rst parallel is reached, about one-third of the popu- lation has been covered; the next single degree extends the proportion nearly to one-half, while more than two-thirds lie north of the thirty-eighth parallel. Be- tween the forty-third and the thirty eighth dwell 29.500. GOO of our people. In 1870, 52.8 per cent of the population was east of the eighty-fourth meridian. In 1880, only 49.4 per cent. was so placed. Eighty-four per cent, of the first meridian; 97 per cent. east of the ninety-seventh.
 The foreign elements of our popula- tion have varied widely since 1850. At that time foreigners constituted 9.5 per cent. of the total population; they now constitute 1S.3 per cent. Of the for eign residents of 1850 43.5 per cent. were Irish; 26.4, Germans; 139, En- glish and Welsh; 6.7, British-Ameri- cans; while the Scandinavians formed less than per cent. Since that time the proportion of Irish to the other for eign elements has steadily declined Oi the arrivals in the ten years ending in 1850, the Germans were but 25 per cent; of those in the ten years ending in 1860, they were 37 per cent Be- tween 1860 and 1870 other foreign ele- ments began to assume importance through the fast-increasing immigra- tion of Swedes and Norwegians across the ocean, and of Canadians across our northern border. We have seen that the Irish of 1850 constituted 43.5 per cent of the total foreign population. h 1860 this proportion had fallen to 3S. g, and in 1870 still further to 333. Al though the statistics of nationality at the census of 1880 are not yet publish ed, it is not probable that the Irish to. day constitute more than P per cent. of the foreign population of the coun. try.