Russia in Europe (1909) 44.0
Japan (1911) 34.1
Italy (1913) 31.7
Austria (1912) 31.3
Spain (1913) 30.4
Austria (1913) 28.3
German Empire (1912) 28.3
Holland (1913) 28.1
Denmark (1913) 25.6
Norway (1913) 25.3
United States (registration area only, 1915) 24.9
England and Wales (1913) 24.1
Sweden (1912) 23.8
Switzerland (1913) 23.1
Belgium (1912) 22.6
France (1912) 19.0
The United States birth-rate may, on its face, appear high enough; but
its face does not show that this height is due largely to the fecundity
of immigrant women. Statistics to prove this are given in Chapter XIII,
but may be supplemented here by some figures from Pittsburgh.
Ward 7, in that city, contains the homes of many well-to-do, and
contains more representatives of the old American stock than any other
ward in the city, having 56.4% of residents who are native born of
native parents while the majority of the residents in nearly all the
other wards in the city are either themselves foreign-born, or the
offspring of foreign-born parents.
Ward 7 has the lowest birth-rate and the lowest rate of net increase of
any ward in the city.
With this may be contrasted the sixth ward, which runs along the south
bank of the Allegheny river. It is one of the great factory districts of
the city, but also contains a large number of homes. Nearly 3,000 of its
14,817 males of voting age are illiterate. Its death-rate is the highest
in the city. Almost nine-tenths of its residents are either foreigners
or the children of foreigners. Its birth-rate is three times that of the
seventh ward.
Taking into account all the wards of the city, it is found that the
birth-rate _rises_ as one considers the wards which are marked by a
large foreign population, illiteracy, poverty and a high death-rate. On
the other hand, the birth-rate _falls_ as one passes to the wards that
have most native-born residents, most education, most prosperity--and,
to some extent, education and prosperity denote efficiency and eugenic
value. For 27 wards there is a high negative correlation (-.673),
between birth-rate and percentage of native-born of native parents in
the population. The correlation between illiteracy and net increase[66]
is +.731.
The net increase of Pittsburgh's population, therefore, is greatest
where the percentage of foreign-born and of illiterates is greatest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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