Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-09-10
MED1AN AGE OF OUR POPULATION.
That of the Whites Has Increased IA
- Years Since 1910. -.


The census bureau on last Thursday
isued a bulletin showing the increasing
age Of the population Of the continental
United States. The bulletin says that
in a former publication this increase
was shown for the period from 1880 to
1900 by computing the average age OF
the population, and shows that in 1880
the average was 246 years; In 1890, 1t
was 25.3 years and in 1900. 26S years.
AS the ages Of the population were not
reported by single years prior to 1880,
this method Of measurement cannot be
applied to the results Of earlier CEN
suses.
Another method of computing the age
Of large population Is by the use OF
the median instead Of the average In Its
ordinary form. The median age may
be computed, the ages Of which are
reported only by five year periods, on
the assumption that the population
within the five-year group containing
the median was distributed among the
five years in the proportion which pre-
vailed in the same age group In 1900.
With the aid Of this assumption 1t has
been possible to obtain the median age
Of the population Of the United States
for censuses prior to $780, and table
has been complied showing this increase
in ten-year periods.
The table shows that there was an
increase in the median age Of the white
population Of the United States during
each decade from 1910 to 1900, amount
ing in the ninety years to IA years, or
an average amount Of about fve-sixths
of a year in a decade. The median age
of the colored population. including Ne
groes, Indians and Monogolians, In
creased after 1880, but with less regular
ity, the median age for 1910 and 1850
being the same and that for 1880 and
1890 being lower than that for 1870 and
not much higher than that for 1860. The
median age for 1870, however. may have
been affected by the serious omissions
in the count Of the colored population or
that wear. The median age OF the COL
ored population increased 80 years IN
the seventy-year period from 1881 TO
1900, or only about half as fast as that
of the whites. But during the last ~
wears Of the century the increase for
the two groups has been substantially
the same 1.9 years for the colored and
Fl years for the whites.
The most marked increased In the
median age of the whites was IN the
decade 1S4O-1s5O, a period in which that
of the Negroes did not rise. The change
was probably due to the influx In that
decade of large numbers of adult immi-
grants. raising the median age.
Many complex influences have CO.
operated in producing as a resultant
this steady change in the age compost
ton Of the population. There may be
mentioned-the rapid progress of medi-
cal and sanitary science which has tend
ed to increase the average length or
life, the decrease in the relative num-
ber of children born, which has made
the earlier age periods less preponder-
ant numerically in the total popula-
ton, and the influx, especially since
1910, of great numbers Of adult immi-
grants increasing the number In the
older age periods. The difference be-
tween the white and colored poulations
Is doubtless due to the fact that these
influences have wrought more power
fully upon the white race than upon the
colored.