PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A special meeting of the Anthropological Society of Washington was 

 held January 7, 1913, in the National Museum, wdth the President, Mr. 

 George R. Stetson in the chair. 



Mr. E. Dana Durand, Director of the Census read a paper on Race 

 statistics of the last census. During the decade 1900-1910 the white pop- 

 ulation of the United States increased about 22 per cent and the negro 

 about 11 per cent. This difference is partly due, however, to the direct 

 or indirect effect of immigration of whites, in the absence of which the 

 whites would have increased about 14 per cent. The Indians increased 

 about 12 per cent, the Chinese decreased in number, while the Japanese 

 nearly trebled. The whites have at practically every census shown a 

 more rapid rate of increase than the negroes, and there is reason to 

 beheve that the difference between the two races in rate of increase 

 from 1890 to 1900 was greater than appeared from the census returns, on 

 account of a probable underenumeration of the negroes in 1890. The 

 census of 1910 showed that about 21 per cent of the negroes are mulat- 

 toes, as compared with about 12 per cent in 1870, the last preceding 

 census at which the question regarding blood mixture was asked in 

 comparable form. 



There has been no very great migration of negroes out of the South, 

 nearly nine-tenths of the total number being still found in that section. 

 The number living outside the South increased 167,000 between 1900 

 and 1910, while the number residing in the South increased over 800,000. 

 The rate of natural increase — that is, by excess of births over deaths — 

 of the white population of the South, however, is much higher than that 

 of the negroes, being higher also than that of the whites in the North. 



Among- the native white population whose parents were born in this 

 country, there were, in 1910, 104 males to each 100 females, as compared 

 with only 98.9 in the case of the negroes. Among all classes of the pop- 

 ulation more boy babies than girl babies are born, but equality tends 

 to be brought about by a higher death rate among the males. The dif- 

 ference in sex distribution between the whites and the negroes is probably 

 attributable, in part at least, to more favorable health conditions among 

 the whites. 



The age distribution of the native white population is somewhat 

 different from that of the negroes, probably chiefly on account of a lower 

 death rate among whites, tending to greater longevity. There has appar- 

 ently been a very marked decline in the birth rate among negroes in 

 recent years, while there had been a gradual but less marked decline 

 in the birth rate of the whites during each decade for a long period of 

 time. 



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