Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-07-14
Other Areas GROWING
Faster Than Cities,
Census Figures Show
Earlier Trend Reversed
In New TubuIution
Of Bureau Statistics

Reversing trend Of many dec
AIDES, during which American cities
as q whole have shown q greater
relative increase in population than
country districts. other areas are
now growing faster than cities.
This is the most important fact
so far revealed in the returns from
the 1910 census, DR.. Leon E. Trues-
dell, chief population statistician in
the Census Bureau. pointed out yes
terday. Though Washington and
few other cities have registered large
gains in population since 1910, most
cities are growing slowly, and some
have reported smaller population
than 10 years ago.
Preliminary announcements have
now been made for l29 cities of
more than Is 900 popuia ton, widely
scattered geographically. As COM
pared with EOS per cent increase
during the decade 1920 1880, these
cities show population gain of only
4.3 per cent during the last 10 years.
Cities Show Loss.
Cities grow primarily by lnigra-
ton from small towns, villages and
rural areas. Few cities have q high
enough birth rate to prevent a de-
cline in population, without migra-
ton from outside. If the trend to-
ward smaller rate of population
growth continues, more cities, it is
predicted. will sho wan actual loss
in population.
What areas are the beneficiaries
of the lag in the population growth
of cities? Census Bureau experts
sire unable SO far to provide an au-
tnentlc answer to this question.
The beneficiaries, they point out, are
either the suburbs of cities, the coun-
try farm districts. rural non-farm
areas, or the open country, where
many families, in recent, years, have
established themselves. All four
classifications, in all probability have
benefited, though in varying de-
grees, by the slower growth of cities.
Labor Of Months.
To obtain data on the extent, and
characteristics of internal migration
during the depression decade, the
Census Bureau this year asked every
family, and individual, to tell where
they lived on April /, 1885. To tabu-
late the data on internal migration
will be labor of many months.
When the job is completed, the
Census Bureau will be able to define,
with scientific precision, the areas
that have gained at the expense of
the cities. It also will be able to
answer another question, namely the
States and regions that have con-
tributed most to the population gains
OF the District of Columbia, and the
metropolitan area during the last
decade.
OF the 129 cities of Is 900 inhabi-
tants or more for which preliminary
announcements have been released,
80 have lost population since 1880.
Among these cities are Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, st. Louis, Duluth, At
lantic City, Passaic, Brockton, Cam
bridge. Worcester, Mass. and Akron
and Youngstown, Ohio.
The slowing down of population
growth in cities during the last
decade has important economic and
Other implications, according to
Census Bureau experts. In plan
ming sales campaigns, for example,
businessmen now must revise their
earlier market estimates For the
suburban and rural areas will pro-
vide greater percentage of their
potential customers than was the
case decade or two ago.
Affects Representation.
In politics, the decline in the
growth of cities may tend to in
crease the representation in Con-
gress and State Legislatures of
representatives from rural areas.
On many questions. such as prohi-
bition, town and country have been
on the opposite sides Of. the political
fence.
The 1910 census returns are ex-
pected to show marked increase
in the number of persons of ad-
vanced age, and an actual and a
relative decrease in the number of
children. This. too, has important
economic implications. It indicates,
for example, larger market for
wheel chairs and smaller demand
for baby carriages.