154 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



more frequent in the city. By the re-marriage of widowed and 

 divorced persons, the city marriage-rate is raised, without any 

 real addition to the number of married people as compared with 

 the rural community where the first marriage would have con- 

 tinued longer." 



Differences in the age composition of urban and rural com- 

 munities, and differences in the percentage of women who are 

 married make the crude birth rate a very unsafe index of how 

 fecundity is affected by an urban environment. On account of 

 their higher percentage of people of child bearing age the crude 

 birth rate gives to cities too favorable a showing. Many married 

 women now to go city hospitals to have their children, and the 

 city thereby gets credit for births which really belong to the 

 country. And the figures for urban birth rates are also apt to be 

 higher than the rural on account of more adequate birth regis- 

 tration in cities where the matter can be brought under one 

 administrative control. 



Percentage Married in 28 Great Cities oj the U. S. 



Cities Whole Country 



Male Female Male Female 



Foreign White 67.3 62.7 65.9 68.1 



Native White 57.1 58.0 66.0 67.9 



" Foreign 45.6 54. 48.6 58.8 



Negro 59.5 51.9 69.0 65.0 



590 58.8 63.8 66.3 



Perhaps the most important factor in the situation in the 

 United States is the presence of a relatively large foreign popula- 

 tion in the cities. The foreign elements marry early and have a 

 high marriage rate. Their fecundity for these and other reasons is 

 high. In several cities of the United States we have therefore the 

 somewhat unusual condition of a relatively higher birth rate in 

 cities than in the rural districts of the states in which they occur. 

 Thus in Massachusetts in 1916 the birth rate was 24.8, the lowest 





