HB 2179 G-19 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 051 607.152 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924051607152 POPULATION 71 CENTER OF POPULATION The center of population is the center of gravity of the inhab- itants of the country; each person being supposed to have the same weight, and to press downwards with a force proportional to his distance from this center. The movement of the center of population from decade to decade expresses the net resultant of all the movements of population which have taken place. The following table, and the map on page 73, show its position at each census from the beginning : POSITION OP THE CENTER OP POPULATION Census Tear North Latitude West Longitude 1790 39° 10.5' 39° 16.1' 39° 11.5'- 39° 5.7' 38= 57.9' 39° 2,0' 38° 59.0' 39° 0.4' 39° 12.0' 39° 4.1' 39° 11.9' 76° 11 2' 1800 76° 56 5' 1810 77° 37 2' 1820 78° 33 0' 1830 79° 16 9' 1840 80° 18 0' 1850 81° 19 0' 1860 82° 48 8' 1870 83° 35 7 1880 ; 84° 39 T 1890 85° 32 9' Movements of the Center. — In 1790 the center of population was about twenty-three miles east of Baltimore, Maryland. During the next decade it moved almost due west to a point about eighteen miles west of Baltimore, the \vestward movement being about forty -one miles. Between 1800 and 1810 it moved thirty-six miles to the westwai'd and made a little southing, being then, in ISIO, about forty miles northwest by west from Washington. The southward movement during thiq ■■'■i-ide was probably due to the annexation of Louisiana, which u'lded quite a body of population in the vicinity of New Orleans. Between ISIO and 1820 it moved fifty miles to the westward uiid again slightly southward, being found in isiio about sixteen 72 THE BUILni? ■ .1 NATION miles north of Woodstock, Vii:_ Tlir ^oulLv.ani i-ri.pone.it of its motion was prohably duo ' ■ xU'nsiuii of si'ii'' ment ;ii ^fississippi, Alabama, and ea.si'Hi ' reorgia. Between 1820 arid 1830 it moved thirty-nine miles to the westward and,4^4iSts slightly s'l'ithward, to a point about -nineteen miles west south- wcbi '^C y\. -rc field, West Virginia. Tlj;s southwasil movement was due to the accession of Florida and to tiic rapid extension of settlements in Mississippi, Louis- iar.a, ami Arkansas. Between 1830 and 1840 its westward movr;,iea» amounted to fifty-five miles, wliile, instead of bearing south\v.,i-(l, it bore slightly northward to a point sixteen miles south of f^larksburg. West Virgir'.ia, the extension of settlement in Miei)i;j.m and Wisconsin having apparently overbalanced that in the f.a sunth. Between 1840 and 1850 it again made fifty- fiv ; luile- ,>f westing and turned slightly southward, being found at a I .t twenty-three miles southeast of Parkersburg, West Vi '^\ na. The change to the southward was probably due to rhi -x. lexation of Texas, which embraced a considerable popu- lation. Erom ISoO to I860 it moved eighty-one miles to the westward and turned sligbt!'; northward, reaching a point twenty miles south of ChiUicothe, Ohio. From 1860 to 1870 it moved west- \vard forty -two miles, besides making a considerable northing, being in 1S70 forty-eight miles east by north of Cincinnati, Ohio. Thi.s northing was doubtless due in part to the waste and de- struction attendant on the civil war at the south, and in part to the rapid rxtensiou of settlement in the northwest, and, further- UKjre, to the oniissiu! - of tli(> census of 1870. In 1S>|' theeenter had rctuiMi'd southward to nearly the same latitude it oeenpie 1 in 1^6n, an'."° 32'.9. On the other hand, the center of area of the countr}', excluding Alasiia, is in the northern part of Kansas, in approximate latitude 39° 55', and approximate longi- tude 0^° 50'. The center of population is therefore about three- fourths of a degree south, and more than seventeen degrees east, of the center of area. /' URBAN POPULATION The population of the country may be classed as urban and rural; the rural element being engaged mainly in agricultural occupations, while the urban element is engaged in manufac- tures, transportation, commerce, :ind personal services of- one sort or another. These two elements ai-e closely allied with the groups of occupations as liei-e noted, so that as manufactures and commc)'ce increase, the urban element increases correspond- ingly. For ob\'ions reasons it is impossible to make a complete dis- tinction between these two elements, although it is easy to make an approximate classification. Many cities contain, within their corporate limits, extensive suburbs which are practically rural communities ; and, on the other hand, there are scattered all through the country small bodies of population closely aggre- gated, which cannot be distinguished from the scattered rural POPULATION 75 population among which the}' dwell. Such cases are extremely cdinmon in the New Engl and (towns and cities, which comprise considerable areas, and which consist in varying parts of urban and rural population, that cannot be separated from one another, owing to the fact that the town is the smallest political unit returned by the census. The Census Office maintains the iron rule of regarding as urban all concentrated bodies of population exceeding eight thousand in number, and this rule has been observed in the following discussion. The annexed table shows the urban and rural population of the country, under the above definition, at each census, together with the proportion which the urban population bears to the total population. The urban and rural population is shown also in the diagram on page 76. URB4.N AND EURAL ELEMENTS OF POPULATION Census Teabb Urban Pop- ulation. Rural Pop- - ulation. Urban to total Popalation ' 1790 131,472 210,873 356,920 475,135 864,509 1,453,994 2,897,586 5,072,256 8,071,875 11,318,547 18,284,385 3,797,742 5,097,610 6,882,961 9,158,687 12,001,511 15,615,459 20,294,290 26,371,065 30,486,496 38,837,236 44,337,865 3.35 1800 3.97 1810 4.93 1820 1830 4.93 6.72 1840 8.52 1850 12.49 1860 16.13 1870 20.93 1880 22.57 1890 29.20 A century ago this country contained but six cities having a population of more than 8,000 each, and the urban population constituted but 3.35 per cent., or about one-thirty-third, of the entire population of the country. To-day the number of such cities is 443, and their population 18,284,385, which is 29.20 per cent, or not very much less than one-third of the entire popula- tion. The total population is about .-ixt'^'^n tiirifs as L:reat as it was a hundred years ago, while the nrliN: [lopulation is one hundred and thirty-nine times as great. This aggregation of the people in ri'ios is a natural and