THE INFLUENCE OF URBAN AND RURAL ENVIRONMENT 355 



Table ii 

 age groups in new york state population 



just over 80 males for every 100 females, v^^hile in Massachu- 

 setts as a whole there are found to be 96 males for each 100 

 females. The death rates of females are in general lower 

 than those of males, and their hfe expectancy on the whole 

 two or three years longer than that of males for the various 

 decades of life. 



The upshot is that when we adjust and correct city and 

 rural death rates by taking into account the differences of 

 race and age and sex, the resulting city rate is higher and 

 the rural rate lower. When this process is carried out for 

 New York City as compared with the rest of the State, 

 the city death rate is raised at least one point per thousand 

 and that of the state, preponderantly rural, correspondingly 

 lowered. The disadvantage of city existence as compared 

 with rural for similarly constituted population groups, 

 therefore, would be materially greater than has been indi- 

 cated above, and the comparative death rates of Table i 

 uncorrected for age, sex and race differences, represent a 

 distinctly conservative statement of that disadvantage. 



How much of this excess is chargeable to the environment, 

 physical and social, of the city, and how much to the trades 

 and occupations, which are now conducted in the city and 

 which might if carried on in rural communities cause at least 

 as much loss of Hfe, we have no way of knowing. 



Much evidence, however, for the essential hazards of 

 city life per se as compared with rural can be had from a 

 study of individual causes of death among young and old, 

 and from factors not primarily or necessarily related to 



