ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT

New Zealand Tablet, 2 November 1911, Page 2193

ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT

Inquirer. —The last United States religious census was taken in 1906, when the number of Catholics was officially given as 12,079,142. The previous official census was taken in 1890, when the figures were 6,250,000. According to official figures, therefore, there has been an increase in fifteen years of 93.5 per cent. It is to be remembered moreover that the census bureau refuses to include children who do not communicate, a class that it figures, as comprising 15 per cent, of the whole. Adding this 15 per cent, to the 1906 figures would bring the Catholic total to 14,210,700. The Official Catholic Directory for 1911 gives the Catholic population , for 1910 as 14,618,761. That represents a gain of 271,734 over the same authority’s total for 1909, the figures for that year being 14,347,027. This latter total showed a gain of 111,576 on the previous year. The author you mention rarely quotes authorities for his statements, and most of his figures are evolved from his own inner consciousness.