Present Population of the United States. (JANUARY 1, 1908.) ACCORDING TO ESTIMATES MADE FOR THE WORLD ALMANAC BY THE GOVERNORS OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES. THE Governors were requested to make estimates of the present population of their respective States and Territories for the THE WORLD ALMANAC for 1908. Where the executives failed to respond in time the estimates were made by other State officials, as indicated in the table. (a) Based upon School Census. (b) By the Secretary of the Board of District Commissioners. (d) By Labor Bureau of Statistics. The above summary shows that of the 21,329,819 males of voting age in 1900, 19,002,279, or 89.1 per cent, were literate, and 2,327,540, or 10.9 per cent., were illiterate. By illiterate" is meant all persons who can neither read nor write, or who can read but not write. There is a very large percentage of illiterates among each of the several classes of colored males of voting age, and a considerable proportion also among foreign white males of voting age. Of the two classes of native white males of voting age much the larger proportion of illiterates is found among those of native parentage, 5.8 per cent.of this class of voters being illiterate as compared with 2 per cent. for native white males of voting age who are of foreign parentage. Ratio of Urbau to Total Population: 1900-31.1 per cent.; 1890-29.1 per cent.; cent.; 1850-12.5 per cent.; 1820-4.9 per cent.; 1790-3.4 per cent. CENTRE OF POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES. POSITION OF CENTRE OF POPULATION. Approximate Location by Important Towns. 1860-16. 1 per 23 miles east of Baltimore, Md. 18 miles west of Baltimore, Md. 40 miles northwest by west of Washington, D. C... 19 miles W.S. W. of Moorefield, in the present State of W.Va 48 miles east by north of Cincinnati, Ohio.. 6 miles southeast of Columbus, Ind. Miles, 41 36 50 39 55 55 81 42 58 48 14 519 This table was prepared by the Census Office. The centre of the negro population in 1890 was near Rome, Ga., and was travelling Gulfward. The centre of area of the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii and other recent accessions, is in Northern Kansas, in approximate latitude 39° 55', and approximate longitude 98° 50'. The centre of population is therefore about three-fourths of a degree south and more than thirteen degrees east of the centre of area. RANK OF STATES ACCORDING TO POPULATION. Women at Work in the United States. (The Census Bureau issued in 1907 a report presenting statistics of Women at Work.) In the United States the number of women at work as returned by the census of 1900 was almost five million. In continental United States-by which is meant the United States exclusive of Alaska, Hawaii and all other outlying territories or possessions-the exact number was 4,833,630. RACE AND NATIVITY. The total number includes 1,771,966 native white women whose parents also were natives; 1,000,744 native white women one or both of whose parents were immigrants; 840,011 white women who were themselves 'immigrants; 1,119.621 negro women, and 11,288 Indian and Mongolian women. Thus the native white women of native parentage constituted 36.7 per cent., or more than one-third, of the total number of women who were breadwinners, the other classes being represented by the following percentages: Native white of foreign parentage, 22.6; foreign born white, 17.4; negro, 23.2; Indian and Mongolian 2-10 of 1 per cent. AGE. Most of the women at work were young women; 68.4 per cent. of them were under 35 years of age, 44.2 per cent. were under 25, and 25.6 per cent. had not reached the age of 21. These figures are in marked contrast with those for the male sex. Of the men 16 years of age and over reported as workers or breadwinners, only 24.7 per cent. were under the age of 25, and only 12.7 per cent. were under 21. This contrast is indicative of the fact that large numbers of women who support themselves and others in early life cease to be breadwinners upon assuming the responsibilities of marriage and childbearing. MARITAL CONDITION. This conclusion is substantiated by the statistics of marital or conjugal condition. Almost two-thirds, or 65 per cent., of the total number of women at work were single, while 15.9 per cent. were married, 17.7 per cent. were widows and 1.3 per cent. were divorced. PROPORTION OF WOMEN AT WORK. The total number of women 16 years of age and over in continental United States in 1900 was 23,485,559. The number at work constituted 20.6 per cent. of this total. In other words, one woman in every five was a breadwinner, that term being used to designate persons reported by the Census as following a gainful occupation. Of the total male population of the same age-that is, 16 years and over-90.5 per cent. were breadwinners. This difference between the sexes as regards the percentage of breadwinners is probably not greater than would be anticipated. Men take up some occupation almost as a matter of course, and usually follow it the greater part of their lives. With women the adoption of an occupation, although by no means unusual, is far from being customary, and in the well-to-do classes of society is exceptional. Moreover, the pursuit of an occupation by women is probably more often temporary than permanent. OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN. In the reports of the Twelfth Census (1900), the detailed classification of breadwinners with respect to the kind of work in which they were engaged distinguishes 303 Occupations. Notwithstanding the increasing diversity of employments for women, domestic service still remains the most important by far of the occupations in which they are engaged. Of the 4.833,630 women in continental United States reported as engaged in. gainful occupations at the time of the Twelfth Census. 1.124.383. or almost one-fourth of the total number, were returned as servants. It may seem surprising that the next most important occupation for women is that of farm laborer, and that the number of women reported as following this occupation was 456,405, or almost half a million. The significance of the figures will be better understood if it is pointed out that 442.008, or 96.8 per cent. of these female farm laborers were reported from the Southern States, and that 361.804, or 79.3 per cent. of the total number, were of the negro race. Moreover, it appears that 277.727. or 60.9 per cent. of the total number, were members of the farmers' families, representing the wives and grown-up daughters, assisting in the work on the home farms. Next to these two leading occupations come four occupations not far apart in numerical importance, though widely different fn character. They are the occupations of dressmaker, laundress. teacher and farmer. The largest of these occupations-that of dressmaker-employed 338.144 women, and the smallest-that of farmer-employed 307.706. Of teachers, there were 827.206: of laundresses. 328.935. Three-fifths of the total number of women reported as breadwinners were found in the six occupations employing more than 300,000 women each, the aggregate number in these occupations being 2.882.779. The total number of women reported as textile mill operatives-231,458-makes this the seventh occupation group in numerical importance. The occupation next in rank is that of housekeepers and stewardesses. This comprised 146,929 women. The housekeepers here referred to are those working for wages, the housekeeping or housework done by women in their own homes not being treated by the Census as a gainful occupation, although it has, of course, a great economic importance. not to be overlooked in any attempt to estimate the social value of woman's, work. there are added to the occupation groups already mentioned the group of saleswomen. comprising 142,265 women, and that of seamstresses, comprising 138.724. the list includes the ten leading occupations for women, and accounts for 3,542,155, or 73.3 per cent. of the total number of women who are breadwinners. Teaching is also an occupation in which women predominate. The occupation is one in which both sexes have long been competing on terms of approximate equality, and it is significant that it is also one in which the predominance of women is increasing. In 1880. the percentage of female teachers was 67.8; it advanced to 70.8 in 1890, and to 73.4 in 1900. In the group of textile mill operatives the two sexes were represented in about equal numbers. But in the remaining three of the ten leading occupations mentioned above, women, though numerous, were in the minority, constituting 24.1 per cent. of the total number of salesmen and saleswomen, 13.6 per cent. of the farm laborers and only 5.4 per cent. of the farmers. |