36 Hattie Plum Williams 
TABLE VI. COMPARATIVE SIZE OF FAMILIES AMONG RuSsSsIAN GERMANS 
AND IN THE UNITED STATES AS A WHOLE 
Russian German United States 
iene Wena? Gaooucosccsouoos .30 3.63 
2=O-member eratmilysey sao eee 73.00 73.33 
7-TO-iM eMp ete ratiniliyac mere sierra sane 25.10 20.97 
TI—12-member scanatlysayaes see eee ee 70 2.07 
persons among the Russian Germans living alone. This fact is 
indicative of their strong tendency toward family life. The 
widowed remarry, often at an advanced age; or, otherwise, if 
their children are grown, they make their homes with them. The 
comparatively small number of families of eleven members and 
over is also significant. The figures for the United States are 
based largely upon boarding houses and hotels where all those 
living under one roof are classed as a family. In the immigrant 
quarters of the large cities or in foreign districts like the anthra- 
cite coal communities in Pennsylvania, these statistics indicate 
crowded and unwholesome conditions, where many boarders are 
housed in small quarters. The few families of this size among 
the Russian Germans demonstrates the fact already mentioned, 
that considering the size of the immigrant group, the number of 
boarders is small, and the evils arising from their presence is at 
a minimum. ‘The percentage of two-to-six-member families is 
practically the same for the Russian Germans as for the United 
States as a whole. The percentage of families consisting of from 
seven to ten members is considerably larger among the Russian 
Germans and this is the true index of the comparative size of 
natural families in the two groups. 
V. Distribution According to Age, Sex, and Conjugal Condition 
The resolving of a population into these factors is a necessary 
prelude to the explanation of certain social phenomena which that 
particular group exhibits. For example, a high death rate may 
be due to the unsanitary conditions under which a people live, or 
it may be largely explained by the fact that a great proportion of 
the population is of the age when the expectancy of death is 
greatest, i. ¢., under one year or over fifty. Again, criminality 
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