The evening times., 1900-05-26

The three classes which are entirely or
in great part natives Of Cuba had a per-
eeptible excess Of females, while the two
classes Of immigrants had a far grea. er
excess Of males Hence il is clear that
the excess OF males in Cuba is due to tie
character of the immigration.
The native whites constituted SIS per
cent, or considerably more than one-half OF
the population Of Cuba The 70. eign
whites constituted but cent; the coOred,
including the negro and mixed elements,
amounted only TO 81 per cent, or less than
one-third, while the population of Chrhese
was trifiing, being less than l per cent
The ages OF the population by sex are
presented for each province and the city OF
Havana in five age groups-0 to l. to II.
is TO 2Or q TO A. 40 on The num-
Der under years OF age was S.3 per cent
OF the whole, while in Jamaica in 1891 il
was l3 per cent. in the Barbados 1876
and in the United States in 1890 it was i2 2.
The lsst time the population of Cuba was
counted with distinction OF age was IN the
Spanish census of 'S51, and at that time
the age groups recognized were under 1
l TO Z, to 10, etc But from those figures
IL IS possible TO estimate, approximately
the number OF children in Cuba under IN
1861 and the result reached is over L pr
cent of the total population Assuming this
10 be under ordinary conditions the Tor
$4,000 children under 5, shown by the pres
ent census, must be attributed TO tie
events Of the last five years in the island
turning TO the other end of life the
proportion of persons over 45 in Cuba was
also small. The per cent of the pop-
ulation belonging to this group was 142.
while in the United States il was l7.2.
But this relatively small number of elder
ly persons in Cuba is not new charac-
tprlStfe Indpad
was somewhat less. 1t probably results
mainly from. and is an index of. unsani-
tary conditions, ignorance regarding care
OF the health, and poverty all of which
are widely prevalent among certain
classes in the island. These causes CO.
operate 10 produce a short average dura-
tion OF life, and consequently a small pro-
portion OF elderly persons. But these
causes. while probably the leading ones
have perhaps been re-enforeed by auoth-
er, the depletion Of the age class of over
- among the foreign born through a cur
rent OF emigrants returning to SPAIN
China, or elsewhere after their work in
Cuba is over.
The per cent Of children who attend
ed school varies quite uniformly with the
per cent Of urban population, and sug-
gests that the school system of Cuba is
lar more adequate in cities than in rural !
districts. II is assumed that ordinarily
persons VINO learn TO read and write do /
SO before they reach the age OF 10. There !
are l.Zl5.SlO persons over 10 in Cuba. and /
Of these probably rather more than two |
hfths-that is, those reported literate /
plus those who attended school during the /
year-433 per cent. could read, and ratb- /
er less than three-ffths. 56.7 per cent. /
could not
IN order TO compare the returns of thie
census with earlier ones il is necessary
10 estimate how many under 10 in $500
we're unable to read. rough approxima-
lion may be found by assuming that all
lnder 10 who did not attend school dur
ng the year 1s9S-99 could not read On
his assumption the total number of iIIit-
,rates OF all ages was I,0O4, ,ss4; that is
iSS. .555 plus 3I6, ,329."