The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-24
PREPARE FIGURES
 ON THE B|RTHRATE Census Returns on Fecundi-
 ty in America IMMIGRANTS IN LEAD Z ? - Married Negro Women in Northern Sections Show Surprisingly Low
 Birth Rate-Rate Among Native White Women
IMMIGRANTS IN LEAD

Washington, April 24,-(Special)- From information collected by the cen sus bureau, on the population schedules of the twelfth United States census in 1900, Dr. J. A. Hill, chief statistician of the division of revision and results of the census bueau, has prepared for the immigration commission a report on the fecundity of immigrant women, in published abstract of which the conclu- sions are drawn that fecundity is much greater among the married white wo- men of foreign parentage than among the married native American women of native parentage; that it is usually greater in the first generation of for eign stock than in the second; and that it is on the whole greater in rural districts than In cities. It is shown also, that high percentage of child lessness prevails among married negro women in northern cities
 The sections of the United States se lected for this study were the state of Rhode Island. the city of Cleveland, and AS largely rural counties in Ohio, the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota and 21 largely rural counties in Minnesota. Rhode Island is a compact eastern state with a population largely urban and manufacturing in character. Ohio and Minnesota are middle western type Cleveland and Minneapolis present ur- ban and manufacturing conditions, and the selected counties in each state, rural and agricultural conditions. , 2s5sna.
 Character of the Data assa The data tabulated for the purpose of this inquiry relates to the number of children borne by married women, that is, women living in the married state at the time the census was taken. Widowed and divorced women were not included, mainly because the number of years they had been married could not be ascertained from the census re- turns. Women married less than one year were excluded because large pro- portion of them, more than three fourths of the total, number had not been married long enough to have borne children Women over 45 years of age also were omitted, because, for the purpose in view it seemed best to consider only those women who were under 45 years of age and whose en- tire married life would therefore fall
 
 The classification by nationality was based upon the country in which the parents were born. The white women of foreign parent age are subdivided as regards birth place into two classes: those born in foreign countries, who represent immi- grants, being designated as the first generation" and those born in the Uni ted States. who represent thte children of immigrants, being termed the sec- ond generation" Foreign Women Lead in Number of
 Children
 The returns show that more children are born, on the average, to women of foreign percentage than to the Ameri- can women of native parentage, and that the number Is usually greater in the first generation of foreign stock than in the second and that fecundity is greater in rural districts than in cities.
 The native white married women oi native parentage, in the districts from which the returns were taken, had borne in the aggregate one child every b.3 years, while the women of foreign percentage had borne one every s. years.
 The first generation of the white ol foreign percentage, representing the inn
 
 three years, and the second generation had one every 3.6 years. For each for eign nationality the number of years married per child borne is less in the first generation than in the second with very few exceptions.
 Polish Women Have the Most Chil-
 dren-English the Least
 Comparing the different nationalities the fecundity Is Sh own to be greateSt in the first generation of Polish women who had on the average one child ev. cry 23 years; also, that the fecundit is least in the second generation O. English women, who had on the aver. age of one child every five years.
 Among American white women o native percentage who had been mar ried from 10 to 20 years, the aver age number of children in Cleveland and in Minneapolis is exactly the sam, -2.4--and hardly differs from tn. average in Rhode Island, 25. The aver age in those areas is lower by l. ol nearly 1. than 1t is in rural Ohio ant rural Minnesota where 1t is 3.4. IT other words in the rural districts oi Ohio and Minnesota the women of na tive American percentage who were if vhe second decade of their married Tiff. had borne on the average of one moro child than the same class of womer In the cities of Cleveland and Mime