THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 



43 



MAP SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF URBAN TO TOTAL POPULATION 



Nebraska, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, 

 Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, 

 Idaho, Nevada, Oregon. 



It will be noted that all the States 

 south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, 

 without exception, are agricultural, and 

 that those of the upper Mississippi Val- 

 ley, with the exception of Illinois and 

 Ohio, are of similar character ; that the 

 North Atlantic States, excepting Maine, 

 New Hampshire, and Vermont, are 

 manufacturing and commercial, and that 

 the western States, excepting California 

 and Washington, are predominantly 

 agricultural. 



OUR CITIES HAVE GROWN MUCH MORE 

 RAPIDLY THAN THE COUNTRY 



The distribution of the urban element 

 is very irregular. One-half of the dwell- 

 ers in cities of 25,000 or more inhabitants 

 were in the North Atlantic States, while 

 in the northern States — i. e., those north 

 of Mason and Dixon line, the Ohio River 

 and the southern boundary of Missouri 

 and Kansas — were not less than four- 

 fifths. In the western States were 8 per 

 cent, while in all the southern States 

 there were only 12 per cent. 



In every State the urban element, 

 defining it as above, has grown more 

 rapidly than has the rural element, or 

 the, remainder of the population, in a 

 number of cases many times as rapidly. 

 Thus, in New York, while its cities have 

 increased 42 per cent, the rural element 

 has grown only 2 per cent ; in Massachu- 

 setts the corresponding proportions are 

 32 per cent and 4 per cent, and in Ohio 

 48 per cent and 1 per cent. The cities 

 have shown a very rapid growth, rang- 

 ing from 141 per cent in Oregon and 140 

 per cent in Washington, down to 13 per 

 cent in Kentucky and 14 per cent in 

 Delaware and Maryland. 



In four States, viz., New Hampshire, 

 Rhode Island, Iowa, and Missouri, the 

 rural population shows a decrease, while 

 in Maine, New York, North Carolina, 

 Michigan, and Ohio the gain of this ele- 

 ment of the population has been trifling. 



In 1900 there were 38 cities having 

 100,000 or more inhabitants each. Dur- 

 ing the decade following, this number 

 was diminished by two — Allegheny, 

 Pennsylvania, was annexed to Pittsburg, 

 and Saint Joseph, Missouri, apparently 

 lost a large number of inhabitants, leav- 



