Omaha daily bee., 1885-07-06
SOME REGENT CENSUS FIGURES.

SOME RECENT CENSUS FIGURES.
Boston, according to the recent Mesa
chusstts state census, has a population of
$40, 900. New York, figuring five per
soma to every name In her new directory,
claims a trife over 1,500, 600, and Chi
claims zoe, loco, multiplying her di'
rectory names by four. Buffalo has had
a census taken by her police, who have
returned 2O2, S1S names, bat the Express
claims that the population of the city Is
really 200, 1000. Eighteen months ago the
police census made the population Of
Cleveland nearly 201, 900, q gain Of over
40, 600 In three years and a half. The
Leader says tha. the increase In n
year and a half at this rate would be
II, OC0, making the present population
218, 900. Kansas City claims q %popula-
ton of $4,000, and with her suburbs,
lao, 900, In round numbers. Dss Molnes,
according to the census of Iowa, which
has JUS been completed, has 10000 In
round numbers, Council Bluffs has 10000
and Sioux City $4,000. The state cenaua
of Nebrasks, which Is nearly completed,
will show that Omaha has 10000 popu-
lation. The last city directory, published
last spring, contained 1852 names, and
If we were to multiply by five, IS New
| York has done, we would have 80, 500
people, and multiplying by four, as Chi
cago mas done, we would have 79,48S
population. When cur directory was
Issued, we claimed q population oil
80, GIG, the result of multiplying 1882
by three, and the census, which gives us
60, 600, shows that the multiple 3 i,
the most reliable In calculating popula.
ton upon the basis of the directory,
although, perhaps, 1t is only
fair to allow the use Of
O larger multiple in the large cities of the
east, where there are more persons to
each directory name than there are in
western cities. incidentally, we are in
| clined to the belief that Kansas City has
used the New York multiple of 8, In cal,
culating her population at 1913, 600. II
she had used Omaha's multiple of 3 in
multiplying her directory names she
would find her population to be about
100, 0O0. That the multiple of 8 Is a.
together too large even In New York is
admitted by the Evening Post of that
city, which gays:
The failure to take the d%ecernial state cen
sus this year, through Governor Hills veto Of
the legislative bill, leaves the city directory
as the only means of estimating the growth Of
the metropolis. For obvious reasons, the di'
~rectory-maker does not come anyway near
taking the place OF the census-taker, but
when the directory of any city is compiled
year after year by the same firm, it affords q
reasonably fair basis for comparisons. The
volume Just issued indicates that our popular
ton has increased during the past five
years at q rate scarcely below that which
held between 1876 and 1850, The d.
rectory for 1885 contains 80, 746 names,
which, on the theory that each name in the
list represents an average of five persons in
the community, would make the whole mum
Der of inhabitants no less than l ,553, 730. But
experience has proved that this is far toe
high a ratio, the national census of 1880 show
ing that tho actual proportion was only about
four and a half. The directory of 1880 con
tanned 266, 2S2 names, and the new volume
has 310,746. Applying the "rule of three
we find that the same ratio as held 10 1880
would make the present population of the
city LAOS, 052, as against 1,206,577 five
years ego. The increass between 1875 and
1880 was 164,G9l, and the increase of 2O1,-
ATS between 1880 and 1885, accepting the
above estimate for tho latter year, although
much larger, represents almost exactly the
same ratio. Business depression has checked
the normal growth in one direction, but on
the other hand, the foreign immigration into
this city, of which New York city always
~retains a considerable residuum, has been
nearly three times as large in the last five
years as in the previous five, 80 that the
actual growth of the whole population has
probably been about as rapid in the later as
in the earlier period. 1t eczema reasonable
therefore, to conclude that New York now
contains more than !, 400, 900 people.