The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-09
STATISTICS OF MARRIAGE.


STATISTICS OF MARRIAGE.
Figures Which Show that the Tribe of Bach
eIors Is On the Increase.
New York Evening Post.
A change in the public sentiment of a nation
regarding matrimony is social fact of the first
magnitude. There is abundant evidence that
such a change has during the last quarter of a
century been coming over the American people,
and especially that portion of it which lays
special claim to the title American by descent
from the stock which came earliest to this
country
The newer States of the Union, for obvious
reasons, furnish no basis for comparisons, and
few of the older States have for long period
collected data regarding marriage worthy OF
confidence. But statistics sufficiently COM
plete to warrant conclusion have been gath
cred in some parts of New England. Massa-
chusetts has long been conspicuous
for the accuracy of her vital statistics, full
report regarding the number of births, mar
riages and deaths having been prepared annually
for more than forty years We have thus the
data for a comparison of the number of mar
riages during the decade preceding the war with
the number during the decade just closed,
covering a period quarter of century later,
Examination shows that the average number of
marriages per year for the ten years beginning
with 1850 was II 1873, while the average number
for the ten years beginning with 1873 was Is, l39
The population. of Massachusetts in 1917
was 1884, 5l4, while in 1875 it was l,6ol,'
9l2, and the percentage of increase was about
the same during the last ten years as in the ten
years following 1850. The population of 1879
was 66 per cent greater than that OF 1870, ana
the same ratio will hold for the whole decade
following 1875 as compared with that following
1850. 1t thus appears that, while there have
been &c per cent. more people capable of getting
married during the last ten years than there
were between 1850 and 1860, less than % per cent.
L.,x~ lorin hoo
increase two thirds, and marriages less than one
third To put it in another way, out of every
thousand people in the State twenty-one used to
be married each year, while now the number
reaches only seventeen.
The vital statistics of Connecticut have been
collected ever since l84S, although not so care
fully as in Massachusetts. The number of
marriages reported in Connecticut during the
ten years beginning with 1850 averaged 3,477,
while the number during the last ten years has
averaged 4677 The population of the State in
1850 was $780, 1872 and in 1875 about $50, 0C0. In
other words, the number of inhabitants during
the last decade has been Sc per cent greater
than in the earlier period but
81 per cent. greater There is reason to
believe that the discrepancy is in reality even
larger, for it is well known that there has been
more accuracy in registration of late years than
formerly so that the number of marriages actu-
ally contracted between 1850 and 1860 must have
exceeded the number reported IN greater meas
ure than was the case during the last ten years.
Making allowance for this consideration, it seems
fair to conclude that the disparity between the
increase of manageable people and the increase
of marriages is about as marked in Connecticut
as in Massachusetts.
DR., Edwin M. Snow, of Providence, r. l., has
for thirty years compiled a careful and complete
annual report in relation TO the births. mar
riages and deaths in that city, and the body of
statistics which he has thus collected furnish
better basis for conclusions than can be found in
the case of any other large city in the country
From these figures it appears that the number
of marriages in Providence in the period before
the war averaged 6l9 per year, while during the
past ten years the average has been 1,099. The
population of the city was AZ. 795 at the begin
ming of the earlier period, and 1905 at the be-
ginning of the later. That is to say, the number
of people who might get married was 115 per
cent. larger during the last ten years than in the
decade before the war, while the number who
did get married was only II per cent greater.
The population of Ohio has always been
largely recru ted from New England, and it is
evident that the same influences are at work
among the descendants of the Yankees in the
Western States as among those who remain in
the land OF thor ancestors Before the war the
number of marriages in Ohio averaged about
=, 900 year, the total for 1860 being % JOG,
while for five past the number has averaged 90
205. The population of the State in 1860 was
9, 1888, 51l, and in 1880, 3, 1913, 062. The number
of inhabitants mad increased about 81 per cent,
and the number of marriages only 26 per cent.
These statistics only confirm the conclusions
which any observing person Of wide acquant-
ance VINO has considered the subject is sure to
have reached. 1t has long appeared to him as
though the number of marriages fell far short
of keeping pace with the increase of population,
and the records show that his impression was
quite correct. 1t can hardly be questioned that
the average standard of comfort in such States
as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Ohio is
higher than it was a generation ago; that the
proportion of young men capable of providing
good homes is fully as large as it was thirty
years ago. indeed, the old bachelor of the present
day is more likely to be man who could support
a family in comfort than was the case in the
constantly becoming more numerous class of
the community, and thereby swelling in equal
measure the ranks Of the old maids.
The most potent reason for this change is
undoubtedly the economical one The change is
most marked among the well-to-do class. Young
men OF this class grow up with luxurious habits,
which bachelors income will sustain but which
are incompatible with the support of wife and
children The cost of maintaining q family in
good style and of giving children liberal educa-
ton increases more rapidly than the earnings of
the husband and father man sees that if he
marrles he must abandon modes of life which
have become essential to his comfort, and he
fears that the more restricted plane of eXpendi-
ture would be as disagreeable to the woman as
TO himself. lie, therefore, hesitates to marry
finally concludes not to try the experiment-or
it he does marry, he has few children. for the
statistics show with equal clearness that the
birth rate is diminishing even moro rapidly than
the marriage rate among the higher classes.
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