GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 71 



provision for the needs of the children and young people and to a lesser 

 degree establish the adequacy or inadequacy of outdoor provisions for the 

 population as a whole. 



Each group of communities will be considered in order from the group 

 of smallest communities through to the largest city group. 



Group I. All Incorporated Communities Under 2,500. 



This group is classed in the Federal Census as rural. 1 According to 

 the 1920 Federal Census there were 12,905 incorporated communities in 

 this group, comprising 8,969,149 inhabitants, or 8.5 per cent of the total 

 population of the United States. In the 1910 census this group represented 

 8.9 per cent of the total population. 



During the recent study of municipal and county parks reports were 

 received from 1,320 incorporated villages falling within this group. This 

 represents slightly over ten per cent of the total number of such com- 

 munities (12,905-- 1920 census). These reports came from all sections of 

 the United States, so that a fairly good representation of the conditions 

 prevailing in communities of this type for the whole nation was secured. 

 As to properties that might be classed as parks, in a broad interpretation 

 of that term, 751 villages of the 1,320 reporting, or 56.9 per cent, stated 

 they had no parks, while 569, or 43.1 per cent, reported parks. The total 

 of all park properties reported was 5,346.64 acres, or a general average of 

 approximately 9.4 acres per village. 



Of the 569 villages reporting parks, 80 were selected as most represent- 

 ative from the viewpoint of either the size of their park area or school 

 ground area or both. These villages ranged in population from 86 to 2,484 

 inhabitants. Sixty-nine of these have parks and the total park area was 

 1,762.17 acres. The total population of the 69 communities was 59,749. 

 The ratio of park acreage to population is one acre to about every 33 inhab- 

 itants. Seventy-five of the 80 communities report a total of 594.99 acres 

 of school sites. If these communities are not overstocked with park and 

 school site areas, these figures indicate that the commonly accepted stand- 

 ards relative to the ratio of recreation area to population as applied to large 

 cities cannot be applied to villages. The same condition will be shown 

 later in connection with the ratios in small municipalities. 



If among the 11,603 village communities which did not report at all, 

 the same ratio of percentages prevail as for the 1,320 communities that 

 did report, it means that not only several millions of people living in these 

 small communities have no public recreation facilities but also that several 



'In other rural territory (unincorporated communities and open country) there were 42,436,776 inhabitants 

 (1920), or in all rural territory a grand total of 51,406,017 inhabitants or 48.6 per cent of the total population of 

 the nation. 



