The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-27
NEW CENTER OF POPULATION.
Census of 1900 Will Find It Near
Eastern Illinois Line.
Chicago Inter Ocean)


What will be the center of population
of the United States in 1900, as revealed
! by the coming census? In 1890 it was
! in a rural spot a few miles south OF
T GreensbUrg, Ind, within the retail
! commercial radius of Cincinnati.
/ What point Will mark the center OF
population next year?
The entire distance which it has
Travelled in 100 years. since the taking
CT the first census, is sos miles The
average rate of its western movement
has been sos miles each ten years.
AT that rate the center of population
in 1900 will be at the intersection OF
the thirty-ninth parallel of latitude
and the eighty-seventh degree of longi-
tude, at a point about three miles
southwest of Bloomfield, Greene coun-
ty, Ind, twenty-five or thirty miles
east of the Illinois state line. Greene
county is about twenty-five miles
southeast of Terre Haute and forty
miles southwest of Indianapolis.
The exact location of this point can
not be determined until after the GEN.
suS Of 1900 has been taken Many are
of the opinion that the western move
ment will be less than heretofore, and
I. some even declare that the east has
! outstripped the west during the past
ten years in the matter of increase of
population, and that the center will
not move as far west as sos miles.
concerning matters relative to popula-
ton believe that the center will re-
main in Indiana, and nat its location
Will be somewhere in the vicinity of
Terre Haute.
In 1850 the center of population of
the United States was point almost
due south from Parkersburg, w Va
H., -
southeastern border of Ohio, and for
thirty years remained in that state
In 1870 ii was near Chillicothe. In 1880
it dropped down almost to the center
of Cincinnati. Ten years later it had
crossed into Indiana, and will proba-
bly, remain there until Illinois shall
claim II in the twentieth century.
1t is noticeable that this center has
always followed closely the thirty
ninth parallel of latitude 1t is a fur
Their fact curious enough, that the ma
jority of the large cities of the United
States. as well as of northern Europe,
are either on or reaSOna bly, close 10 the
thirty ninth parallel.
In determining the center of popula-
ton of any country, the population is
first distributed by square degrees"
as the area included between consec-
utive parallels and meridians has been
tentatively as the center, and correc-
TONS in latitude and longitude to this
tentative position are computed.
In 1890 the center was assumed to be
the intersection of the thirty-n ninth pa
rallel, with the eighty-sixth meridian
west of Greenwich. The population of
each square degree was assumed to be
located at the center of that square de-
gree, except in cases where it was man.
ifest that this assumption would be un-
true, as, for example. where a part of
the square degree was occupied by the
sea or other large body of water. or
where it contained q city of consider
able magnitude which was located
away from the center. In these cases
the position of the center of the popu-
lation of the square degree was esti-
mated as nearly as possible.
Railways and immigration have been
the great factors in pushing the center
of population westward. Another mat
ter which affected it was the acquisi-
ton OF Texas and the Gadsden pur-
chase.
In calculating the center ~ popula-
ton Alaska and our more recent ac-
QUESTIONS are not included