144 



STATION BULLETIN 346 



There is a significant correlation between population per town 

 and assessed valuation per town (also see Chart II). The assessed 

 valuation averaged $360,647 and $1,483,713, respectively, for towns 

 of less than 400 persons and of 1,000 or more persons. However, the 

 amount of taxable wealth does not tend to increase in the same pro- 

 portion as population ; in other words, towns of low population have 

 on the average a relatively large taxable wealth per capita. 



The expenses of towns with 1,000 or more persons average more 

 than four times as much as the expenses of towns with a population of 

 less than 400, but the expenses per capita are nearly 50 percent less. 

 Although the amount of assessed valuation per capita is relatively 

 high among the towns of lowest population, it is not of sufficient mag- 

 nitude to lighten the tax burden, inasmuch as the town property tax 

 is high relative to both population and valuation. Furthermore, con- 

 cerning the 28 towns lowest in population, it is noteworthy that the 

 property tax necessary to meet town expenses is a relatively large 

 percent of the total property tax, the percentage being 47.7, compared 

 with less than 40 for the other three groups. In other words, towns 

 having a population of less than 400 pay a smaller proportion of the 

 local property tax to other local units of government and retain a 

 larger proportion for town purposes. 



Density of Population 



Because there is a rather close correlation between population 

 per town and density of population, as shown in Table 2, it is obvious 

 that sorting the 100 rural towns by population per square mile would 

 give results similar to those when sorting by population per town. 



Table 3. The Relation of Density of Population to Town Expenses, Town 

 Pkopertv Tax, and Other Factors 



1940 Population 

 per square mile 



Range 



Aver- 

 age 



Num- Square 

 ber miles - 

 of per 



towns town 



Population in 1940 



Per Percent Percent 

 town of 1880 of 1930 



Assessed 

 valuation 



Per 



town 



Per 



capita 



Less than 10 

 10 to 19.9 

 20 to 29.9 

 30 and over 



All towns 



6.5 22 47.0 305 52.0 105.0 $444,867 $1,458 



14.2 ZZ 39.5 561 62.0 107.0 578,550 1,031 



23.0 15 2>2:j 755 69.7 109.4 721,571 956 



50.4 30 23.1 1,164 104.4 108.0 1,117,866 960 



20.3 100 35.2 



715 



11. Z 107.7 $732,388 $1,025 



1940 population 

 per square mile 



Town expenses 



Per Per 



town capita 



Town property tax 



Per 



town 



Per 

 capita 



Percent 



of_ 

 valuation 



Percent 



of total 



property 



ta.x 



Less than 10 

 10 to 19.9 

 20 to 29.9 

 30 and over 



$ 9,031 

 12,697 

 15,457 

 20,971 



$29.60 

 22.62 

 20.48 

 18.02 



$ 6,413 



7,541 



10,206 



13,577 



$21.02 

 13.43 

 13.52 

 11.67 



1.44 

 1.30 

 1.41 

 1.21 



46.7 

 38.3 

 41.4 

 37.9 



Alltowns $14,787 $20.69 $ 9,503 $13.30 1.30 



39.7 



