354 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



12 per cent of all the counties of our states, promises to be of 

 increasing value in carrying the benefits of the appHed 

 medical sciences of today to remote homes and small villages. 

 Rapid increases in means of communication and transporta- 

 tion and wider spread of reliable information about per- 

 sonal health will continue to bring benefits to the rural 

 family which have up to this time been available only in 

 large centers of population. 



It will be noted that the crude general death rates from 

 all causes, without adjustments for age, sex and racial 

 differences in the populations (first line of table) are higher 

 for city populations for each of the years by almost exactly 

 the same degree, i.e. about i8 per cent. The improvement 

 in health and security of life has been at the same rate 

 during the decade 19 10-1920 in both city and country 

 populations, and still we find that the city rate in 1920 is 

 not yet as low as the rural rate in 19 10. 



Apparently the disadvantage of city existence as compared 

 with rural, for the population groups as they are constituted 

 today, in the United States, is represented by approximately 

 2.2 deaths per thousand per annum, which for the estimated 

 65,000,000 people classified as urban dwellers amounts to a 

 total of 143,000 deaths per year. 



The chief racial differences of population are in favor of 

 the city group since the negroes are to be found in larger 

 proportion in rural than in urban populations and it is their 

 presence which always raises a general death rate. Any 

 correction made on the basis of proportion of white and 

 colored races would result in a greater disadvantage in 

 urban death rates. 



Similarly in the matter of age differences the result of 

 adjustment would be to raise and not lower the city rates. 

 It will be seen from Table 11, summary of age groups of the 

 urban and rural populations in the State of New York, 

 that the city population has a greater proportion of younger 

 persons. 



Again in the matter of differences in the proportions of 

 the sexes in the two groups of population, the city contains 

 a generally higher ratio of women than does the country, 

 as for example in the metropolitan area of Boston there are 



