THE DECREASE OF RURAL POPULATION. 



623 



In 1880 tne 3,715 places which in 1890 had more than 1,000 in- 

 habitants each, had but little more than half as many inhabitants 

 as resided outside their limits, yet during the decade their abso- 

 lute increase was more than twice as great as was that of the rest 

 of the country, and relatively nearly four times as great. Striking 

 as this difference is, it tells only a small part of the story ; for 

 such increase as there was, was confined almost entirely to the por- 

 tions of the country hitherto altogether unsettled or but scantily 

 peopled. 



In northern Maine, in the Adirondacks in New York, in north- 

 ern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, in southern Florida, in 

 the Dakotas and Texas, and in nearly all the States and Terri- 

 tories west of the Missouri, large areas of hitherto unsettled land 

 received inhabitants. The settled area, by which phrase the Cen- 

 sus Office means the area on which there is a population of at 

 least two to the square mile, increased during the decade 377,715 

 square miles, or more than the entire settled area of the country 

 at the beginning of this century, and nearly as much as the areas 

 of France and Germany combined. Almost three millions of the 

 entire four millions of increase in rural population was in the 

 States west of the Mississippi, and the remainder was in the com- 

 paratively thinly settled States south and west of Virginia and in 

 northern Michigan and Wisconsin. Speaking generally, it may be 

 said that there was an absolute decrease in the rural population of 

 all the more densely populated agricultural regions of the country. 



The diminishing population of rural New England has long 

 been the subject of melancholy comment. During the last decade 

 no less than 935 of its 1,592 cities, towns, and plantations, whose 

 population was separately returned both in 1880 and 1890, lost 

 inhabitants. Of these 935 no less than 814 were towns or planta- 

 tions which in 1880, and of course in 1890, had less than 2,000 in- 

 habitants, or in other words were mostly rural places. The aggre- 

 gate population of the 1,246 towns, plantations, and " gores/' which 

 in 1890 had each less than 2,000 inhabitants, in 1880 and 1890 

 compared as follows : 



1880 population 1,050,060 



1890 population 977,830 



Decrease in decade 72,230 



Percentage of decrease 6 - 88 



