156 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



rate in the rural parts of the state being only 18.5. In almost all 

 the cities of the state the percentage of foreign bom was greater 

 than in the country. The percentage of foreign bom women in 

 cities of over 25,000 was 26.8% as compared with that in the 

 whole state which was only 19.2%. Particularly significant is the 

 fact that the birth rate per 1,000 married women of 15-44 yrs. in 

 1916 was 72 for the native born and 177.3 for the foreign born in 

 the country, and 69.3 for native bom and 174.8 for foreign born 

 women in the cities. Thus in both native and foreign bom women 

 of child-bearing age higher fecundity was shown by the country 

 dweller, but the larger proportion of foreign bom women in cities 

 made the urban birth rate higher than the rural. 



It is probable that much the same relations would be found to 

 be widely prevalent in the United States. In many states there 

 are no birth statistics kept which may be depended upon, and 

 even in those in which birth registration has been most faithfully 

 carried out there is a considerable amount of inaccuracy. The in- 

 creasing birth rate which some states of the registration area 

 show in the last decade is, I suspect, largely, if not mainly, the 

 result of improving registration of births. The low birth rate and 

 the surprising irregularities in the records which are shown by the 

 statistics of only a few years back naturally destroy confidence in 

 the data. I have taken only the most recent available reports 

 from states in which there is reason to believe that records are 

 sufficiently complete to warrant basing conclusions upon. In 

 these states it is not improbable that the rural birth rates are too 

 low, as it is probable that births have been more carefully re- 

 corded in cities then in the country. However, the inaccuracies 

 are, I believe, not sufficient to seriously modify the conclusions 

 drawn from the data. 



The evidence afforded by the birth statistics of urban and 

 rural communities is supported by the careful compilations of the 

 Immigration Commission on the birth rates of native and foreign 

 born women. In Rhode Island the average number of children 

 bom to women under 45 who were married from 10-20 years in 

 urban and rural communities is indicated below: 



