14 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER H. 



SOCIETY. 



18. Population. In population, California is the twenty- 

 fourth State of the Union, but in the absolute number of 

 Chinamen it is the first, in Mexicans and Russians second, in 

 Spaniards the third, in Poles and Danes the fifth, in French the 

 sixth, and in English, Scotch, and Irish the ninth. About 

 one-seventh of the people of the United States, and four- 

 elevenths of the Californians, were born abroad. 



According to the Federal census, the population of Califor- 

 nia was, in 1870, 560,247 ; and since that year no census has 

 been taken of the entire population in any part of the State, 

 nor of any class save that of the children counted for school 

 purposes. In 1872, the children under sixteen years of age 

 numbered 207,084, indicating an increase of 22,394 in two 

 years, or more than 11,000 annually. Of these 207,084, 69,723 

 were under five years of age, and 137,361 between five and 

 fifteen inclusive. We may assume safely that in each of those 

 two years 8,000 children passed beyond the school age, so tKat 

 the entire natural increase was 38,394. We know also, by the 

 statistics kept by the Custom House of San Francisco and the 

 Central Pacific Railroad Company, that in the three years and 

 a half between the 1st of July, 1870, and the 1st of January, 

 1874, the excess of arrivals over departures by sea and rail 

 was 65,000 persons. After allowing for deaths, the population 

 of the State at the end of 1873 was about 641,000, if the 



