The rapid Spread of Settlement 



27 



The settled area at each census has been measjired and the 

 results compared one with another. The table presents the rates 

 of increase of the settled area compared with one another, and 

 also with the rate of increase of the population. It is seen that 

 while the settled area has increased at a rapid rate the po]3ula- 

 tion has increased in each case still more raj^idly. 



Center of Population. 



The distribution of the poj^ulation is summarized in the posi- 

 tion of the center of population, and its movements are likewise 

 summarized by the movements of this center. The center of 

 population is the center of gravity of all the inhabitants of the 

 country, computed under the assumption that each individual 

 is of the same av eight and presses downward with a force propor- 

 tional to his distance from the center. In 1790 this center of 

 population w^as located near Baltimore, in the northern part of 

 Chesapeake bay. In the centur}^ which has elapsed this center 

 has moved westward decade by decade, the stages ranging from 

 36 to 81 miles, with an average of about 50 miles per decade. 

 Now it varies northward a trifle in its western course as the 

 weight of settlement has been attracted northward, and again 

 southward, perhaps by the addition of Texas with its body of 

 Americo-Mexican people, but generally keeping a consistent 

 course toward the setting sun. In one hundred years it has 



Position of the Center of Population in each Decade. 



moved westward 505 miles. In 1890 it rested for the time in 

 the southern part of Indiana, near Greensburg, still far, however, 



