THE BIRTH RATE OF 



METHODIST CLERGYMEN 



Prominent Churchmen Nearly All Married and Have More Children Than Other 



Men of Similar Education and Social Rank, Despite Their Small 



Salaries — Marked Evidence of Birth Control 



The Editor 



THE influence of religious ideals in 

 maintaining a high birth rate 

 has often been discussed by 

 eugenists, but with very few 

 facts to go on It has sometimes been 

 assumed that religion is antagonistic to 

 the idea of birth control, and that the 

 families in a particularly religious sec- 

 tion of the population are larger than 

 the average. 



The present paper reports a study of 

 the families of 1,986 persons prominent 

 in the Methodist Church in the United 

 States. Most of them are clergymen. 

 It demonstrates that a remarkably high 

 percentage of them are married, and 

 that the birth rate is considerably higher 

 than among other people of an approx- 

 imately equal degree of education and 

 social standing, notwithstanding the 

 fact that the average Methodist min- 

 ister's salary is probably under $900 a 

 year. It is thus seen that religious 

 ideals do have some effect in increasing 

 the birth rate. However, it is a mistake 

 to attribute too much importance to 

 such influence, for the economic influ- 

 ence appears to be more important in 

 determining the size of family. There 

 is marked evidence of much voluntary 

 birth control in the families of these 

 prominent Methodists, and as a whole 

 the group is barely reproducing its own 

 numbers. 



The data are taken from "Who's Who 

 in American Methodism," compiled by 

 Carl F. Price and published in 1916. 

 The biographies in this book were 

 furnished by the subjects themselves, 

 and state, among other things, the date 

 of birth, date of marriage, and niunber 

 of living children. Between 1 and 2% 



of the individuals included are women, 

 who have been treated as men in 

 tabulating the statistics. This un- 

 doubtedly introduces a small soiirce of 

 error, but it is probably pretty evenly 

 distributed. 



It appears from a study ^ of the 

 biographies in this book that marriage 

 is, as it is popularly supposed to be, 

 almost universal among clergymen. 

 The percentages are as follows : 



Never married 2 . 56% 



Married once 83.98 



Married twice 12.59 



Married thrice 84 



The small number of single men is 

 remarkable in comparison with Harvard 

 and Yale graduates, of whom from 20 

 to 25% are celibate. It confirms the 

 popular idea that it is impossible for a 

 clergyman to remain unmarried. Some 

 of those listed as single may yet marry, 

 reducing the percentage still further. 



MARRIAGE AT EARLY AGE 



The early age at marriage is also 

 remarkable, considering the fact that a 

 young clergyman gets a very small 

 salary, and that other men of his class 

 put off marriage much longer, pleading 

 the expense of marriage as an excuse. 

 The Methodists here considered most 

 frequently marry at the age of twenty- 

 four, and the great bulk of them are 

 wedded before they reach the age of 

 thirty. If a line is drawn at twenty-six 

 years, it is found that just as many 

 marry before as after this age. But 

 at twenty-four the ordinary college man 

 has been separated from his alma mater 

 only a few months. It is evident that a 



1 The data were extracted and largely tabulated by W. L. Altman, of the American Genetic 

 Association. On leaving to take up miUtary service, he turned them over to the editor. 



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