Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-04-18
Farm-B0rn Children
Outnumber All Others

New York. April 1J.--(By A. P)-
The birthrate in the farming areas
of the United States is 80 percent
greater than in the cities and "a per-
cent greater than in the villages, ac-
cording to a report published today
by the Institute of social and Re-
ligious Research of this city, which
gives under the title ~ Census
Analysis of American Villages" the
results of the first tabulation ever
made of the United States census
data for villages. BY villages is
meant communities having from ESQ
to $500 inhabitants.
The figures in the report show that
at the last census period the average
number of children to each 100 mar
ried women between Is and As years
of age in villages was 1877. as COM
pared with 12S in the cities, while in
the distinctly farming areas the aver
age number was 1875.
The population in the villages is
shown by the report to be very diff
ferCnt in its composition and charac-
teristics from the population in the
strictly farming areas. The analysis
shows, for example. that in the coun-
trys farm population there are 100
AiitIl " ever IuU Which, Willie III
the villages there are only 95 men to
each 100 women.
Basing his criticism on these and
ether differences, DR.. c. Luther Fry,
the author of the report, questions
the validit" of the census procedure.
which makes no distinction between
the data for villages and data for the
rest of the rura! population.
Tho rpnOrt St1fac that tho caocI1c
data for 1.75 percent of the 1925
villages in the United States having
populations between $50 and $500
We're tabulated and analysed in the
study, and that this sample was care
fully selected to include representa-
tive villages in the middle Atlantic
region, the middle west, the south,
and the far west.
According to the report, the vii
lagos have a sproportionately large
number of old people as compared
with the cities and the farming
areas. OF the men in the villages,
2S,5 percent are 45 years of age or
older; while for the United States as
Il whole, l.5 percent of the men are
in that aGe-group. OF the women in
the villages, PA percent are 40 or
have passed that age, while this is
true of only 20 pcpcent of the wo-
men of the entire country.
The different regions themselves
also show n great difference in the
composition of the population. In the
middle Atlantic region. for example
33.4 percent of the village men and
36.7 percent of the village women
have reached or passed the 45th
year. In the villages of the middle
west, 81 percent OF the men and
29.4 percent of the women are As or
older; in those of the far west, 27.3
percent of the men and 23.S percent
of the women: in those of the south,
81 percent of the men and 1914 per-
cent of the women.
The figures show that for every
100 women the middle Atlantic vii
lagos have only SIS men; the villages
of the middle west, 95 men; those of
the far west los men, those of the
south, "a men.
In the marital status OF villagers.
regional differences are marked. In
the far west which is the one area
i'll which the men in villages out
number the women, only 22.6 percent
of the village women Is years of age
are older and single. This compares
with 26.T percent in the middle At
lantic region, PSI percent in the
middle west, and 2S.4 percent in the
south.