38 Henry Gannett — Movements of our Population. 



the distinction was first made, and the maps in plate 13 show 

 where the foreign born are located. 



Ratio of Increase of the foreign born. 



The maps show their distribution over the country expressed 

 in percentages of the total population, state by state. From this 

 it is seen that the home of the foreign element is in the north 

 and west. The foreign born have never invaded the south to 

 compete in labor with the colored element. Indeed, in the 

 northern and western states there are found no less than 96 per 

 cent of the entire foreign-born element of the country. 



Now, a glance at the constituents of the foreign element. They 

 repeat in a broad way the composition of the immigration. Plate 

 14, figure 1, presents the constituents of the foreign-born popula- 

 tion of 1890, showing that the Germans are in excess of all 

 others, numbering 2,785,000, followed by the Irish, 1,871,000, the 

 British, 1,251,000, the Canadians, 980,000, and the Scandinavians, 

 933,000. These five nationalities comprise nearly nine-tenths of 

 the whole foreign element. The Italians and Russians each 

 number less than 200,000 ; the Poles only 150,000, and the Hun- 

 garians and Bohemians but a trifle over 100,000 each, 



How are these different nationalities distributed over the 

 country ? The series of maps forming plates 14 to 16 show this 

 expressed in the form of a proportion between their numbers and 

 the total population of the various states. From them it is seen 

 that the Canadians are found mainly in northern New England, 

 Michigan, Minnesota and North Dakota, closely hugging the 

 northern border. The Irish are found mainly in New England 

 and New York, comparatively few having wandered westward. . 

 The Germans are found from New York westward, and in the 

 greatest body in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Scandi- 

 navians have settled as far north as they could and yet remain 

 within our jurisdiction, being found principally in Wisconsin, 



