The marvelous Growth of our Cities. 



29 



tions exist in places much smaller than this. Still, whatever 

 limit is adopted, the conclusions to be drawn from historical 

 comparisons hold equally good. The following table shows the 

 urban population and the proportion Avhich this bears to the 

 total j)opulation at each census : 



A century ago this country contained but six cities having a 

 population of more than 8,000 each, and the urban population 

 constituted but 3.35 per cent, or about one-thirty-third of the 

 entire population of the country. To-day the number of such 

 cities is 443 and their population eighteen and a quarter millions, 

 which is 29 per cent, or not very much less than one-third of the 

 entire population. The total population is about sixteen times 

 as great as it was a hundred years ago, while the urban popula- 

 tion is 189 times as great. It has grown eight times as fast as 

 the total population. 



This aggregation of the people in the cities is a natural and 

 necessary result of the increasing density of population and of 

 the consequent change in avocations, which was discussed above. 

 It has gone on in this country at a constantly accelerating rate, 

 and the acceleration will probably be in the future even more 

 marked than in the past, as a greater part of our domain reaches 

 and passes in density of population the limit of successful 

 agriculture. 



Referring to the map (plate 9, figure 2), which shows the pro- 

 portion of urban to total population, it is seen that the urban 



5— Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. V, 1893. 



