202 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
NATIVITY 
NATIVE AND FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION OF COLORADO, 1860-1900 
Native Born Percentage of Total Foreign Born Percentage of Total 
—— | | | 
TSOO Manteo satire 31,611 Q2.22 2,666 7.78 
TOVOWS Misi eays ica 33,205 83.45 6,599 16.55 
TOOOs tek eielestra’ 154,537 79.52 39,790 20.48 
TOQO Meise Seles youcy ave 328,208 79.62 83,990 20.38 
TOOO Nees cies vail 448,545 83.1 QI,155 16.9 
The above table shows that the percentage of foreign born increased 
considerably during the decade after 1860, and to a lesser degree from 
1870 to 1880. During the next decade the increase of native and 
foreign born was about the same, so that in 1890 the proportions of these 
two classes of the total population were almost exactly what they were 
in 1880. By 1900 the proportion of foreign born had fallen, due perhaps 
to the great decline of railroad building and the slackening of the demand 
for unskilled labor in other industries. 
The constituent elements of the native-born population of Colorado 
since 1860 are brought out by the table on the opposite page. It appears 
that at each census the persons born in other states and residing in Colorado 
have in a general way come from the group of states represented by Ohio, 
New York, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kansas and 
Nebraska. The last two states do not appear as furnishing consider- 
able elements of the population till the censuses of 1890 and 1goo. 
Migration from them to Colorado did not assume very large proportions 
till some time after 1880. They were themselves objective points of 
migration during the fifties and sixties. 
In connection with the growth of Colorado it is interesting to note the 
states whose populations were most susceptible to the gold fever. Mi- 
gration to Colorado began at the outbreak of this fever consequent upon 
the gold discoveries of 1858-59. Men rushed in great numbers to the 
Rocky Mountains. The census of 1860 shows the state of birth of the 
population and it is easy to ascertain the states in which the gold fever 
found the largest number of victims. The states affected by the gold 
craze seem to fall into three groups according to the degree in which 
men migrated to Colorado. Placed in the order of their rank, the states 
