News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-09-24
WHAT THE CENSUS SAY.
THE GROWTH OF POPULATION.
a rev Estimates Made Up From the
Latest Census Figures.
From the New York SIM. ]

The two State censuses for 1885 OF
which we have full returns indicate that
our population has been growing since
1880 at not far from the rate of increase
between 1870 and 1880. Massachusetts
has increased from L, 7S3, 0S5 in 1880 to
l,94O, 900 In 1885, and New Jersey from
1,l51, 116 to 1876, S25.
The gain in the first State has been
S.4 per cent, and in the other 1873 per
cent. for the five years, as against 90 80
and "a. So respectively during the decade
ended in 1880. That is, the growth of
New Jersey has kept on at just about the
same ratio as between 1870 and 1880,
and that of Massachusetts, has fallen off
at the rate of about 4 per cent. for the
whole decade.
Of the whole increase of las, 700 in
New Jersey more than one-half, rs, 234,
has been in the two counties of Hudson
and Essex, which are substantially out
grOwths of this city, and in Massachu-
sets the gain in population has been al.
most wholly made in the large towns
But the rate of growth of the two Min
nesota cities of St. Paul and Mime
appOhs casts far in the shade the IN
crease in the older communities of the
East. The population of st. Paul was
Al, 473 in 1880, and in 1885 it is III, 397,
gain of 1896 per cent; and Mime
apolis has increased from As, SS7 in 1880
to 129, 200, or 1865 per cent, Through
out the State, too, the growth, so far as
we have returns, has been at an aston
ishing rate, so that Minnesota is likely
to make percentage of increase for the
W mol do
even greater than that between 1870
and 1880, which was n. Sc per cent.
But in making our estimates of the in
crease of population during the next five
years we must take into the account
the circumstance that immigration has
fallen off largely since the period of COM
mercial and manufacturing depression
began, and that in the five years from
1880 to 1885 we received many more i'm
migrants than ever before during the
same time. The high water mark was
reached in 1882, when the total was
7SS, 992, but since then the stream has
been steadily falling, though the de-
cline was not great until last year and
this year carried abroad stories of bust
ness stagnation here. At best we are
not likely to get large immigration
next year, for experience shows that it
does not begin to move until the sign of
prosperity are unmistakable. Thus, the |
immigration, which was 459, SO3 in 1873,
fell off steadily until it dropped to H.
500 in 1879, and then began to rise
again as the business situation became
more cheerful here.
Yet it is probable that, taking the ten
years through, the immigration between
1880 and 1890 will be by far the greatest |
we ever have had, for at least the last
years of the decade are likely to be pros
porous enough to start the stream flowing
at its full. The news of better con-
dltlon of things will quickly fly abroad,
where the people are suffering from
general business depression not less than
that we are experiencing in the United
States.
So far as the health reports afford an
Indication, the city of New York has
grown since 1880 at a greater yearly rate
IF increase than that during the last de-
'ade. But we can only guess that our
population is about a million and half,
or we are not to have State census
his year, from which we could have
obtained the exact figures.