Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-08-18
BIRTH RATE
HAS FALLEN.
Startling Statistics Made Public
. by the Census Bureau De-
crease in Cities.
NOTICEABLE IN WEST.

2 WASHINGTON, Aug. 1S-That there
has been a persistent decline of the
Nblrth rate In the United States since
1880" is the conclusion reached in a
= bulletin issued by the census bureau.
The bulletin was prepared by Profess
or w. +. Wilcox of Cornell university.
The result of his study shows that
ct the beginning of the nineteenth cen
fury the children under ten years of
Aage constituted one third and at the
Send less than one-fourth Of the total
population. In 1850 the number of
( children under five years of age to
1000 women, fifteen TO forty-nine
1 years of age, was 634; III 1900 it vas
only Ala. The proportion of children
to potential mothers in 1900 was only
~three-fourths as large as in 1860.
Considered ~sectionally, it is found
that in the north and west there has
been a more or less regular decline,
while In the south the change has been
less regular and the decline less mark
ed. In the general decrease between
1890 and 1900 not a single state of the
l north Atlantic division took part. IN
seven other states, also, there was no
decrease.
In 1900, for the United States as a
whole, the proportion of children was
only two-thirds as great in cities as in
the country districts. In the north
Atlantic division, however, it was al
most as great In the cities as in the
country. In the southern divisions it
is hardly more than half as large in
the cities as in the country, while in
the far west the difference is inter
mediate in amount. This, it is ex-
plained, is probably due in a large
measure to the fact that the immigrant
population have been swarming into
fhe northern cities.
A comparison is made between the
proportion of children born of native
mothers to 1000 native women of child
sbearing age and the proportion of chill
dren born Of foreign born mothers to
1000 foreign born women Of child
bearing age. In 1900 the former pro
portion was 462, the latter 10, the
difference indicating the greater fe-
cundity of foreign born women. The
bulletin continues:
THE comparison also indicates that
The total decrease In ~fecundity of white
women between 1890 and 1900 was the
result Of a decrease for native white
women, partly offset by an increase
for foreign born white women.
I'm the Atlantic divisions, however,
There was a slight increase in the pro
portion of children born to native white
fmothers. The decrease for the whole
country, therefore, was the result very
largely of the great decrease in the
north central and western divisions.
1.-THE decrease in the proportion Of
children born to native white women
was confined chiefly to %cities.'
The proportion of negro children TO
negro women fifteen to forty-nine
years of age was largest in 1880 and
smallest in 1900. There has been uni
formly a larger proportion of negro
children than of white children. That
difference more than doubled between
1860 and 1880, but in 1900 it was less
than half what it was in 1880 and less
than at any other census except 1860.
Though the negroes have a larger
proportion of children than the whites.
1t has been noticed that the whites of
the south have a larger proportion thar
the whites in other sections of the
country.