358 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



in 1831-40 to 3.7 in 1871-90, the number of children per Catholic 

 family in the latter decade continued large, viz., 6.6. 



In Canada there are marked inequalities in the birth rates of 

 different regions according to the prevailing religion of their in- 

 habitants. Quebec which is almost entirely Roman Catholic has 

 a notoriously high birth rate of 37.2. Nova Scotia which has a 

 high proportion of Catholics has a birth rate of 25, while Ontario 

 with a larger Protestant population has a birth rate of 22.6. 

 Manitoba and British Columbia with birth rates of 15.9 and 14.9 

 respectively, are mainly Protestant, but there are several other 

 circumstances which tend to lower the birth rate of these prov- 

 inces so that the influence of religion may not be more than a 

 minor factor. 



Those states of our own country in which the Catholic popula- 

 tion is large have a high birth rate. In Rhode Island according to 

 Hoffmann "it is shown by the census [of 1905] that of 33,727 

 married Protestants of all nationalities, 24,514 or 72.7% were 

 mothers, and of that number 9,213, or 27.3% were childless. Of 

 34,160 Roman Catholic married women of all nationalities, 

 27,438, or 80.3% were mothers and 6,722, or 19.7% were without 

 children." And there is much evidence that a high Catholic 

 birth rate prevails throughout the nation in general. 



As has been pointed out previously, the birth rate of different 

 components of our population varies greatly according to nativ- 

 ity. Our recent immigration which comes largely from southern 

 Europe contains a high percentage of adherents to the Roman 

 church. Owing to this immigration and the high fecundity of 

 Catholic stocks the Catholic church in several states has come to 

 number more members than all other denominations combined. 

 The once Puritan state of Massachusetts contained in 1906, 

 1,100,000 Catholics and only 450,000 adherents of all Protestant 

 sects. New York numbers 2,300,000 Catholics and Illinois over 

 1,000,000 while the largest Protestant denomination in each of 

 these states contained 300,000 members. 



The adherents of a religious body in any country may in- 

 crease (i) through the immigration of foreign members, (2) 



