The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-07-28
Another Study in Census Statistics More Notable
Facts About North Carolina.

'AA I'LL OOs L. GL11O L y dPPCd4O
that North Carolina is more thickly settled than
the average State; we have 80 persons to the
square mile, while the American average is only
25.6. Note, too, our rate of increase in population
from 1890 to 1900 was greater than for any other
decade save one G87O-188O) since 1900. The per
cent gained was III, while the highest, in 1870
80, was 3O.7. 1t may surprise some to know that
the smallest percentage of increase was not in the
decade of 186O-'7O, when the Civil War slaughter
ed it's thousands, but 183O-'4O, when emigration to
the South and West was at full tide. In the
former decade the gain was 10 per cent, while in
the latter it was only 81. It was of this period
when the Western fever ragged fercest that Calvin
IL. Wiley wrote some years after: ct is no exag-
~geration to say that the State was a great en-
campment, while the inhabitants looked on them
selves as tented only for a season; and every year
the highways were crowded with hundreds of emf
grants whose sacrifices in selling out and moving
would have paid for 20 years of their share of
public taxes, sufficient to have given their homes
all the fancied advantages of those regions With
er they went to be taxed and suffer with disease"
AS to distribution of our population, the census
shows that 81 per cent is in towns of 5000 to
$4,000; 30 per cent In towns of 1000 to 5000, and
10 per cent in towns of $500 to 1000. This leaves
90.1 per cent in what the census officials call
country districts" There are only six other
States and Territories in which nine-tenths of the
population is set down as living in country dis
tricts. These are Arkansas, Idaho, Indian Ter
ritory, Mississippi, North Dakota and Oklahoma.
In North Caroline there are almost exactly
twice as many whites as negroes, the percentages
being 66.7 and 1873. But the white race is increas-
ing much faster; the gain in white population
189O-19OO was so per cent greater than that in
negro population, the ratio being 1871 to 11.3.
The white increase was only 15 per cent below
the average for whites in the United States, while
the North Carolina negroes fell below their race
average, 81 per cent.
Table 40 gives the percentages of native and
foreign-born inhabitants and shows that the
proportion of foreigners-one-ffth of 1 per cent
is smaller here than anywhere else in America.
The proportion for the entire country is sixty
five times as great. Another table shows that
North Carolina has in it's borders the smallest
per cent of persons born in other States. There
has been much immigration from us, but little en-
~igration to us. So while there are in the United
States 2,135,286 living Tar Heels, our population
is only 1,893,81O.
There has been so much confusion as to North
Carolina's relative rank in the educational scale
that the official facts should be of some interest
to the general reader. 1t appears that the per
centage of our white children attending school
(45.3) rs 8.3 per cent lower than the average for
the United States, while the percentage of negro
children in schools is 3.5 points above the aver
age. And while the percentages of children from
5 to 8 and from 10 to IA in school is lower than
the American average, we have a larger proper
ton in the class from Is to 20 years. Moreover,
we had in 1900 not only the largest proportion OF
any State in the two classes attending school one
month or less" and attending two or three
months" but we had actually the largest number
reported by any State, however large, in either