3 88 



The National Geographic Magazine 



entage constitute slightly more than one- 

 half — 53.8 per cent. 



THE NEGRO ELEMENT 



In the United States as a whole the 

 negro element has increased since 1890 

 18. 1 per cent, whereas the white ele- 

 ment has increased as much as 21.4 per 

 cent. The more rapid increase of the 

 white is true also of the South Atlantic 

 and South Central divisions, where nearly 

 nine-tenths of the negro population 

 are concentrated. The only Southern 

 states in which the persons of negro de- 

 scent have increased more rapidly than 

 the whites are Florida, Alabama, Missis- 

 sippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, and 

 Oklahoma. The negro element, how- 

 ever, forms such a small percentage of 

 the population of the two latter states 

 (4.5 and 7.7 per cent respectively) that 

 they may be practically disregarded. 



The more rapid increase of the white 

 element is not due to an influx of whites 

 from other states, as is shown by a 

 comparison of the increase of the native 

 whites of native parentage with the in- 

 crease in persons of negro descent. In 

 the South Atlantic division persons of 

 negro descent have increased 14.3 per 

 cent and native whites of native parent- 

 age 20.5 per cent. In the South Cen- 

 tral division the former have increased 

 19.9 per cent and the latter 29.2 per 

 cent. 



The diagrams on pages 386 and 387 

 sho w the percentage of the negro element 

 in the various southern states at each 

 census period since 1790.* South Caro- 

 lina and Mississippi are the only states 

 in which the negro element is now in 

 the majority. Ten years ago the whites 

 were in the minority in Louisiana, but 

 they have since increased in this state 



* The diagrams showing the percentage of 

 whites and negroes in certain states at each 

 census are based on similar diagrams in 

 Slatistical Atlas of the United States, Elev- 

 enth Census, b_v Henry Gannett, p. 18. 



twice as fast as the negroes. In Ken- 

 tucky they have increased three times 

 as fast, and in Texas one and one-half 

 times as fast as the negroes. 



THE CHINESE, JAPANESE, AND 

 INDIANS 



There has been a considerable decrease 

 in the number of Chinese in the United 

 States during the past decade. In the 

 United States proper the number fell 

 from 107,488 to 89,863, a loss of 17,625, 

 or 16.4 percent. The Chinese are now 

 more widely distributed throughout the 

 country. In all the divisions excepting 

 the Western division there are more Chi- 

 nese than there were ten years ago. 

 The state of California has lost over 

 26,000, but Oregon and Washington 

 have gained a small number. In Ha- 

 waii there are 25,767 Chinese. The 

 following table shows the distribtition 

 of the Chinese in the United States 

 proper: 



The number of Japanese in the United 

 States proper has increased more than 

 ten fold since 1890. Ten years ago 

 there were only 2,039 Japanese in the 

 country, whereas at the time of the last, 

 census they numbered 24,326. As 

 might naturally be expected, a very 

 large proportion, amounting to 96.1 per 

 cent, are concentrated in the Western 

 division. The Japanese element in 

 Hawaii has increased five fold, and now 

 amounts to 6r,iii, about one-third of 

 the total population of the islands. The 

 distribution of the Japanese in theUnited 



