105 MILLION AMERICANS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18232, 18 July 1921, Page 4

105 MILLION AMERICANS

With our own little census so recently completed, the new figures for the 1920 census of the United States, recently published, are peculiarly interesting. The final revised figures for the population of the United States (not including Alaska and the overseas dependencies) as published by the Census Bureau, are 105,708,771, as compared with 91,972,266 at the 1910 census. This means that for the last decade the increase has been at the rate of only 14.9 per cent.,, as compared with 21.0 and 20.7 per cent, for the two previous periods, a figure which is the lowest since statistics have been compiled. The increase of population in the large towns (25.2 per cent.) compared with that in the rural districts (only 3.4 per cent.) proves that in the United States, as elsewhere, the lure of the city is beginning to be a serious factor. It will be interesting to see whether London still retains its pride of place as the largest city in the world. Taking New York City, which comprises the boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Richmond, and Queens, the population is given as 5,620,048 (compared with 4,766,883 in 1910), and this is the administrative area which is most comparable with the County of London. As the population of the latter was 4,521,685 in the year 1911, and even then showed a tendency- to decrease by overflowing into the open spaces of “Greater London” (really- the Metropolitan Police area, with a population then of 7,251,358), it is likely that we shall find ourselves left still further behind. But whether "Greater New York,” the figures for which are not yet published, will exceed "Grsfcter London” of the new census remains, to be seen. Of the individual States, California (population 3,426,861) shows the largest relative increase during the ten years, 44 per cent! 1 ; followed by Michigan (3,668,412) with 30.5 per cent. With regard to the large cities, it has fallen to Detroit, the headquarters of the motor-car industry in the United

States, to provide the sensation of the census with a return of 993,678, compared with only 465,766 in 1910 and 285,704 in 1900. Los Angeles, “the film metropolis,” has increased from 319,198 to 576,073, dislodging San Francisco (508,410) from its pride of place on the Pacific slope.