94 BOARD OF AGEICULTUEE. [Pub. Doc. 



larger or smaller; and, in general, the larger the group, the 

 more rapid the rate of increase. 



For example, in 1790, at the taking of the first census, 

 there were in the United States only 6 cities having a l)op- 

 ulation of 8,000 and upwards. In 1880 the number of such 

 cities had increased to 286, and during the next ten years 

 it had leaped from 286 to 448, an increase of more than 56 

 per cent. And not only did the number of such cities in- 

 crease at that enormous rate during a single decade, but 

 the url)an population itself increased at an even greater 

 rate, namely, from 11,318,547 to 18,284,385, or 61 per 

 cent. 



In 1870 there were but 14 cities containing more than 

 100,000 each; in 1890 the number was 28, or just double. 

 In 1880 again there was only 1 city with a population of 

 upwards of 1,000,000; in 1890 there were 3 such cities, 

 — New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. 



To state the general fact in another form, the urban 

 ])opidation (that is, the })0[)ulation in cities of 8,000 and 

 upwards) was, at the time of taking the first census, only 

 3.35 per cent of the total population of the United States. 

 Fifty years later, the census of 1840 showed that by a very 

 slow rate of increase the urban population had reached only 

 8,52 per cent of the total, but from that time forward the 

 rate of increase was much more rapid, and in 1890 the per- 

 centage of such population was 29.20. In the North At- 

 lantic division, however (which includes New York, New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania, with the New England States), 

 the p(;rcentage of urban population is much greater than 

 the average throughout the country, being 51.81 per cent. 

 In the New England States the percentage varies greatly, 

 being 19.72 in Maine, 27.37 in New Hampshire, 7.93 in 

 Vermont, 69.90 in Massachusetts, 78.89 in Rhode Island 

 and 51.<i3 in Connecticut, the general average for these 

 States being 52.81 per cent. 



So marked has been this tendency toward the concentra- 

 tion of people in cities that upon 16 per cent of the area 

 of the whole country the rural population actually dimin- 

 ished between 1880 and 1890. The diminution was great- 

 est in New York State, where nearly five-sixths of the area 



