THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 127 
It is unfortunate that the data collected by the Censuses of 
1890, 1900 and 1g1o on the relative fecundity of native and 
foreign stocks have never been completely tabulated. The 
Immigration Commission has made an analysis of a part of these 
data from certain fairly representative regions of the country. 
The returns used were taken from the Census of 1900. For 
purposes of comparison a somewhat arbitrary measure of fecun- 
dity was employed, namely, the number of children of women 
who had been married from ten to twenty years. Of these there 
were 78,432. These comprise women from various sections of the 
country both urban and rural. The regions studied included the 
state of Rhode Island, the cities Cleveland, O., and Minneapolis, 
48 mainly rural counties of Ohio, and 21 mainly rural counties 
of Minnesota. In general the women of native white parentage 
had 2.7 children, while those of foreign parentage had 4.4. The 
women of foreign parentage were divided into 2 classes, (1) those 
who migrated to this country, and (2) those both of whose parents 
were immigrants, parents of mixed native and foreign blood not 
being considered. Of the first class the average number of chil- 
dren was 4.7, while that of the second was 3.9, the second genera- 
tion of the foreign born showing a diminution of fecundity though 
retaining a higher birth rate than the women of native American 
stock. The percentage with no children was, foreign born first 
generation, 5.3 per cent, foreign born second generation, 6.3 per 
cent, native born white 13.1 per cent, negroes 20.5 per cent. 
Notwithstanding the high percentage of childless wives among 
the negroes, the average number of children, 3.1, was greater than 
that of the native white American. Both native and foreign 
women were found to be considerably more prolific in the rural 
districts than in the cities. 
The fertility of foreign born women varied markedly according 
to their nationality. This may be seen by consulting the follow- 
ing table giving the average number of children per each wife of 
foreign extraction: 
