154 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
more frequent in the city. By the re-marriage of widowed and 
divorced persons, the city marriage-rate is raised, without any 
real addition to the number of married people as compared with 
the rural community where the first marriage would have con- 
tinued longer.” 
Differences in the age composition of urban and rural com- 
munities, and differences in the percentage of women who are 
married make the crude birth rate a very unsafe index of how 
fecundity is affected by an urban environment. On account of 
their higher percentage of people of child bearing age the crude 
birth rate gives to cities too favorable a showing. Many married 
women now to go city hospitals to have their children, and the 
city thereby gets credit for births which really belong to the 
country. And the figures for urban birth rates are also apt to be 
higher than the rural on account of more adequate birth regis- 
tration in cities where the matter can be brought under one 
administrative control. 
Percentage Married in 28 Great Cities of the U.S. 
: Cities Whole Country 
Male Female Male Female 
Foreign White.............. 67.3 62.7 65.9 68.1 
Native Whit wc owssiew sen: 57-1 58.0 66.0 67.9 
a “Foreign... ..... 45.6 54. 48.6 58.8 
ING RTO. a osse Se avs, gears cats dpe nlaers 59-5 51.9 69.0 65.0 
59.0 58.8 63.8 66.3 
Perhaps the most important factor in the situation in the 
United States is the presence of a relatively large foreign popula- 
tion in the cities. The foreign elements marry early and have a 
high marriage rate. Their fecundity for these and other reasons is 
high. In several cities of the United States we have therefore the 
somewhat unusual condition of a relatively higher birth rate in 
cities than in the rural districts of the states in which they occur. 
Thus in Massachusetts in 1916 the birth rate was 24.8, the lowest 
