141 



Center of Area and Center of Population of 



Indiana. 



W. A. COGSHALL. 



The center of area and the center of population for the State of Indi- 

 ana were determined lately for the Board of State Charities. The pro- 

 cess in the determination of the center of area was to draw two lines at 

 right angles across as good a map of the State as could be found, the in- 

 tersection falling at the estimated center. The areas of the nortli and 

 south sections were then measured with a planimeter and the east and 

 west lines shifted till the two measuix'd the same, 'i'he areas on each side 

 for north and south line were treated in the same manner and the result 

 checked by measurement on several different maps. The intersection of 

 these lines is near the village of Traders I'oint. in Pike Township, Marion 

 County. 



The center of population is really a problem in center of gravity. It 

 is not a point about whicli the population is equally distributed, but a 

 point such that if a map of the State were loaded in proportion to the 

 population of each locality, the map could be supported by that point 

 and would balance. The population of any one locality is therefore only 

 one factor in determining the location of the center, the other factor being 

 the distance of such locality ft-om the center. 



In this determination the statistics used were supplied by Mr. Butler 

 and consisted of the population of each township of each county. I as- 

 sumed that the population would be evenly distributed over the township 

 in the cases where no towns existed. Where a township had a large part 

 of its population concentrated in a town, I estimated the center of gravity 

 of the township accordingly. The distance of these township centers from 

 a pair of arbitrary east-and-west, and north-and-south lines was measured 

 on a large scale map. The solution for the center of gravity gave the 

 distance of such center from the intersection of the arbitrary lines. This 



