The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1896-02-21
SEX AMONG EMIGRANTS.
The Proportion of Women Among
the New Arrivals.
Some Strange Facts Brought Out by
Official Statistics-Countries in Which
There Are More Women
Than Men.

The publication of articles on the
subject of European immigration into
the republic of Venezuela has called
attention again to one of the curlosl-
ties of emigration which has never been
clearly explained and remains there
fore something of an enigma. 1t is
well known that the foreign imm:gra-
ton into this country from the north
ern nations of Europe-Great Britain,
Germany, Russia and Scandinavia
have, like the early colonists from the
same countries, been pretty evenly di-
vided between the two sexes. The
emigration from the southern coun-
tries of Europe, on the contrary, Spain,
italy, Greece and Portugal, has been
chiefly male, and to this fact, perhaps,
more than to any other, is due the in
termarriage of emigrants and natives
in South and Central America, and the
general absence of such marriages in
North America, particularly in the
United States and Canada. The emf
grafton from Ireland, for instance, for
many years, has been more largely
made up of female than of male emf
grants, while from Italy, on the other
hand, the proportion for period OF
more than 20 years is, male, rs; female,
rs.
The total number of emigrants to the
United States from 1915, the first year
of large emigration, to 1895, a period
covering half century, was in excess
| of 100000, and more than 40 per cent.
was female, whereas the large Spanish
| and Italian emigration to South Ameri-
! ca has been almost exclusively male.
| As this matter is not one of early oc-
| currence, but continues at present
(the census figures resuming their old
| dimensions since the improvement of
the times), it might be supposed that
| the number of women in those Euro
pean countries from which there is
and has been practically no female
emigration, would be much larger than
in those countries which have suffered
steady diminution through the emf
grafton of persons of both sexes. But
the contrary of this is shown by the
figures of the Almanach de Gotha. In
Italy, from which there is very little
female emigration, the number of fe-
male inhabitants is actually less than
the male inhabitants--in the ratio OF
20 to 100. In Roumania it is SO to 100.
On the other hand, in Great Britain,
from which the emigration of women
has been continuous, they outnumber
| lo ~, ha nf 1nd IN 1O1
| In all the other countries of Europe
from which there is and has been a
| large female emigration majority CT
the inhabitants are women. In Rus
STA the proportion is 1902 women to 100
men, in Germany 104 women to 100
men, in Sweden JOG women, to 100 men;
in Switzerland 104 women to 100 men
and in Denmark and Austria 1903 won.
en- to 100 men. In France and Belgium
the equality of proportion between the
sexes is evenly preserved. Thus, in
France there are 1904 women to 1,O0f
men, and in Belgium the difference il
smaller, there being 1901 women to
1000 men.
A still more peculiar manifestation
of the same paradox, if it may be SC
considered, is found in the official re-
ports recently published in England
of the emigration from that country
during the last quarter of a century
In 1860 asa per cent. of the population
of Great Britain was male and sly pei
cent. was female. Between 1860 an6
1870 the female emigration was the larg
er, yet by the census of 1871 the female
population increased the more rapidly
From 1870 to 1880 the male emigration
was the larger, but the female popu
lation increased the more rapidly.-N
Y. Sun.