460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



from G in 1700 to 28(3 in 1880, since wliicli time the number has 

 grown to 4:43. New York was the only city in 1880 wliich had a 

 population in excess of one million, but Chicago and Philadelphia 

 now come into this list. The cities in 1870 wliicli contained more 

 than one hundred thousand inliabitants numbered 14, in 1880 they 

 had increased to 20, and in 1800 to 28. The North Atlantic Divis- 

 ion of States, with a population of 17,401,545, contains an urban 

 population of 8,970,420, or 40'22 per cent of the entire urban popu- 

 lation of the countr}^ The jiopulation of the South Atlantic Di- 

 vision is 8,857,020, and the urban population is 1,420,455, or 7'70 per 

 cent of the entire urban population of the United States. The 

 Northern Central Division, the largest group in the country, has 

 a total population of 23,302,279, and it has a large urban popula- 

 tion (5,701,272), which is 31'7e per cent of the entire urban popula- 

 tion. The Southern Central Division contains 10,072,893 inhab- 

 itants, but its urban population is small, it being 1,147,147, or 0"20 

 per cent of the urban population of the country. The Western 

 Division, being the smallest group and having 3,027,013 inhab- 

 itants, has a city population of 000,370, which is 4'94 per cent of 

 the entire urban population. While the North Atlantic Division 

 contains nearly one half the urban population of the entire country, 

 51*58 per cent, or more than one half of its own population, is con- 

 tained in cities of eight thousand or more inhabitants, and during 

 the past ten years this urban element in this division has increased 

 43'53 per cent, while the total population has increased but 19"05 

 per cent. The greatest numerical increase in the urban element 

 is to be found in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York, 

 so far as the North Atlantic Division is concerned ; so that in the 

 States named the rural population must have actually diminished. 

 Of course, this rapid increase in the urban population of the North 

 Atlantic Division finds its cause in the great extension of manu- 

 factures and commerce, lines which rec[uire the aggregation of 

 inhabitants in restricted localities. This large increase of city 

 population is due in some degree to annexations to already exist- 

 ing cities, but this makes no particular difference with the fact 

 itself, that there is a large and rapidly increasing city population 

 as compared with the population of rural districts. 



The bare statement of the facts which I have cited often causes 

 great apprehension as to the character of our population and as to 

 the rapid growth of the influence of cities as controlling powers 

 in the politics of the country, and very frequently it excites the 

 fears of students of social science relative to the supposed increased 

 intensity of the congestion in cities of the slum population. It 

 is upon this latter point that I have for some years made more or 

 less examination, and with a conclusion different from that of 

 statisticians and writers generally. The limits of this series of 



