Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
CONJUGAL CONDITIONS
INTERESTING FACTS BROUGHT
OUT BY THE LATE CENSUS.
District Leads in the Proportion OF
Unmarried Females-Marriage
and Divorce.

| Who's married and who isn't in the United
| States? This is the question that Director
Merriam's census enumerators have asked
| of all its citizens. The answers have all
| been carefully compiled, and the result is
wonderful array Of tables setting forth the
| ''conjugal conditions Of the country.
The District Of Columbia figures in these
| tables in way to cause concern to the
| heart Of the maiden. There are not only
| more maiden ladies in the District Of Co.
lumbia than anywhere else in the United
States In proportion to the population, but
| the District also leads in the number Of
| widows Thirty-eight out of every 100
| females in the District are single. The re-
port does not pretend to give reasons for
| the conditions which it sets forth, but In the
| case of the District several reasons might
be suggested for the single blessedness of
| its female population. Government en-
| ployment is very attractive to the young
women of the country, and when they once
succeed in attaching themselves to Uncle
| Sam, they are 10th to give up his liberality
for the uncertain step of matrimony. What
applies to the madens Of the District in
| this respect applies equally to the widows.
| They are attracted here from all parts of
| the country by the hope or the certainty Of
| government employment, and permanent
| residence in Washington seems to be very
attractive to them. At any rate, 16 per
cent Of the female population of the Dis
trict are widows according to the census
figures.
There are other things in the report per-
tanning to married life which are very in
teresting. For instance, it is shown that
there are 661 boys in this country under the
age of fifteen who are married, while 3,1S5
girls under fifteen have husbands. The in
FAINT widowers under the age of fifteen num-
Der thirty-three, while the infant widows
boys under fifteen and thirty divorced girls
New York and Pennsylvania lead in the
number of boy husbands, each having forty
four, while Texas contains more girl wives
than any other state, the number being
347
The proportion of young women who are
married is greatly in excess of the number
of young men, as the figures show that Of
the total number of males between the
ages of fifteen and nineteen years, only 1
per cent are married, while of the females
of the same ages 1919 per cent are married.
More men are married between the ages of
twenty-five and twenty mine than at any
other age, while more women are married
between the ages of twenty and twenty-five.
The figures show that If a woman reaches
the age of thirty-fve without being married
her chances become very slim.
There are in the United States q $40, 751
married persons, or 36.5 per cent of the
total population. The married males num-
bered 14,O03, 79S, or $50 per cent of the
total male population. The married females
number 1856, 063, or 372 per cent of the
entire female population. The excess of
married men over married women is due
largely to the fact that many foreigners
who come to the United States leave their
families behind them. OF the males fifteen
years of age and over, $40 per cent are
married, and of the females of fifteen
years and over, $50 per cent are married.
In proportion to the male population,
more men get married in Illinois than in
any other state in the Union, the percent
males fifteen years of age and over In that
state being 57.7. Though the number of
women in the newly settled states and ter
rftories of the west is less In proportion
than in the eastern states, the women who
go west have better chance of getting hus-
bands. Oklahoma Is the best place for
women who are looking for husbands to go.
OF the total female population in that ter
ritory, 69.6 per cent are married. OF all
the places under the jurisdiction of the
United States, however, the Hawaiian
Islands would seem to be the paradise of
the husband hunter, for 77.9 per cent Of
all the women in the islands are married.
The largest percentage Of single men in
the United States proper Is in Wyoming,
where 5S.2 per cent were reported unmarried
That, in spite of the large percentage of
married women in Hawaii, the supply Of
raw material for husbands in those islands
has not been exhausted is shown by the
fact that 597 per cent of the men on the
Islands are reported unmarried.
There are 5,S16 divorced women in Texas
more than in any other state in the Union,
seeming to show that while more women
marry young in Texas than in any other
state, many of them soon tire of married
life. The greatest proportion Of divorced
women, however, was found in New Mex
leo and Arizona, l per cent of the women
In each of these territories being divorced.
1t is interesting to note, as throwing some
1ght on the character of female emigration
to Alaska, that 1.3 per cent of the women in
that territory told the census enumerators
that they have been divorced
Illinois leads all the other states in the
n
6,1S1, though the largest percentage Of d.
Vorced men was reported from Nevada,
where 8 per cent of the men were recorded
as divorced.