Evening star., 1932-09-17

The District. on the other hand, has
made much more impressive gain
over the levels of the former census
years than has the country as whole.
1920 Saw Drop.
figures show, 44.8 per cent of the then
2e,255,555 families of the country
owned their own homes. The extent of
home-ownership had dropped to 44.6
per cent in 1920, when the number OF
families was 24351 ,676, according to
the Census Bureau classificationS. The
latest census showed that of the 29,-
904,663 families abiding in the United
States in 1880 46.8 per cent were in
the ome-oWning class. The national
increase for the 20 years thus was but
2 per cent.
In contrast to this. the extent of
home ownership in the District of Co
lumbia rose from 252 per cent in 1910
to 303 per cent in 1920. gain of 81
per cent, and to 376 per cent in 1880,
a further gain of 7.3 per cent for the
last decade.
Thus there was gain here in home
ownership of 12.4 per cent between
2 per cent national gain in the same
period.
1920 Home Owners Here.
OF the 125,554 families in the Dis
trict listed in the 1880 census, 47,220
were grouped as home owners, 1924
as tenants and 5000 as of unknown
status. The tenant families amounted
to $50 per cent of the total families
and 2.5 per cent were in the unknown
tenure class.
In the new analysis of figures show
ing home ownership in the various
just released by the Bureau of the
Census, it is pointed out that the term
family as it is used in the tabula-
tiCnS of the 1880 census, is limited in
the main to what might be called pri-
vate families. This excludes the insti-
tutions, hotels. boarding house and
other quaSi-family groups which were
ClaSSed as families in the prior cenSuseS.
The family group in the new census
usage, therefore, may be defined as a
group of persons, related either by blood
or by marriage or adoption, who live
together as one household. usually
sharing the same table Single persons
living alone in separate homes are
counted as one-person families, and a
few small groups of unrelated persons
sharing the same living accommoda-
tions on a partnership basis have been
counted as families.
Since only those groups defined as
private families were included in the
1880 family classifications the figures
are not exactly comparable to those for
the 1920 and 1910 census analyses. But
the bureau explains that if the quasi
family groups were included the total
number of families would be increased
by less than three-tenths of l per cent
The figures, therefore, are substantially
comparable.
The national figures show two addi-
tional points of interest. One is that
when the family population figures
of the past three censuses are broken
down into farm and non-farm classifi-
cations the home ownership among the
farm classification is higher in each Of
the three periods than it is in the nom
farm classification. The other point is
that the percentage of home ownership
In the farm claSsifications has declined
from the 1910 to the 1920 censuseS,
whereas in the non-farm classifcations
the percentage of home ownership in
creased during three decades.
Farm Figure Drops.
Thus we find that in the farm home
classification 627 per cent Of the fami-
lies owned their homes in 1910. but that
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