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UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



Therefore, in the city the decline in the birthrate is first seen. The 

 following figures showing the number of children under five years of 

 age to 1,000 native white women 15 to 44 years of age in the city and 

 country indicate this clearly for the cities of the United States. 1 



Decline of the Birthrate in Cities of the United States 

 Number of Children under Five Years to 1,000 White Women 15 to 

 44 Years of Age 



City.... 

 Country 



1890 



3°9 

 523 



296 

 522 



Decrease 



The growth of cities has raised the price of rents enormously. Such 

 an increase in rents has increased the cost of living, and the home life 

 which every young man desires is placed well-nigh beyond his reach, 

 unless he belongs to that small class with large incomes when reaching 

 their majority. A still further effect of the city on the birthrate appears 

 in the discrimination in the matter of renting houses to families with 

 children. Landlords in certain parts of our great cities will not rent 

 their houses to persons with more than one or two children, and frequently 

 they object to any children. The parents must therefore seek other and 

 more undesirable quarters of the city, where such discrimination does 

 not exist, and where rents are lower. This, of course, does not have a 

 favorable effect upon the birthrate. 



It is said that the improvements in transportation will help this con- 

 dition, and it is true, but they can never wholly relieve it. The expense 

 of trolley-car transportation and the time consumed in this kind of 

 travel are two factors which it seems can never be entirely eliminated. 



The increase in the opportunities for women to earn their own living 

 tends to reduce the birthrate. It makes women less dependent and in 

 consequence they do not marry at so early an age and therefore the size 

 of the family is reduced. It is also true that a woman capable of making 

 her own living is not so easily satisfied in the matter of a husband as 

 was formerly the case. She prefers industry to a bad marriage. In 

 the early days when this industrial opportunity was not open to women, 



1 Wnxcox, Proportion 0} Children in the United States. Census Bulletin (No. 22), p. 23, August, 1905. 



