THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 159 



ties showed a high fecundity for the rural women. "In Minne- 

 apolis/' says the report just quoted," the average number of 

 children (24) borne by the native white American women is but 

 two-thirds the average (3.8) borne by the white women of foreign 

 parentage. In the rural counties the average is 3.4 for the native 

 American women, being again only two-thirds as large as the 

 average (5.2) for the women of foreign parentage. Thus the 

 average is larger in the rural counties, both for the native Amer- 

 ican and the foreign women." 



In Ohio and Minnesota as in Rhode Island the percentage of 

 childless marriages is much greater among the city women, both 

 native as well as foreign born. The per cent of childless marriages 

 in Cleveland was for native parentage 15.2%; for foreign paren- 

 tage, 6.3%; in the rural counties the ratios were 5.7%, and 5.1% 

 respectively, in Minnesota the per cent of childless marriages 

 was in Minneapolis 12.7 among women of native parentage, and 

 6.9 among those of foreign extraction; in the 21 rural counties the 

 ratios were 5.1% for native and only 2.7% for foreign women. 

 In all states the percentage of childless marriages was greater in 

 the second generation of the foreign bom than in the first. 



The data furnished by the Immigration Commission therefore 

 agree with those from New York and elsewhere in showing that 

 the effect of urban life is to depress the birth rate, and that the 

 relatively high birth rates of American cities are due mainly to 

 their relatively high percentage of inhabitants of foreign extrac- 

 tion. The fact that the crude birth rate is frequently higher in 

 cities than in the country has given rise to erroneous opinions in 

 regard to the actual fecundity of urban populations. Thus 

 Bailey remarks in his valuable work, Modern Social Conditions ^ 

 "It was formerly the case that cities were ' man consuming ', re- 

 quiring that their numbers be kept up by immigration from the 

 country. As time went on conditions changed, until to-day the 

 cities furnish a large proportion of their own increase. At first the 

 birth rate in the country was higher than in the cities, but grad- 

 ually that in the cities has gained until it has surpassed the 

 country rate." Weber states in his Growth of Cities that we are 



