The truth of this statement was borne out by the recent investigation conducted by the Japanese Association of San Francisco, which obtained the following result in thirty-six northern counties of California: AGE DISTRIBUTION OF JAPANESE IN MIDDLE AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, 1920. ========================================== Age. |Male. |Female.|Total. |Percentage | | | | of Age | | | | Group. --------|------|-------|-------|---------- Under 7 | 4,078| 3,786| 7,864| 18.% 8 to 16| 2,035| 1,663| 3,698| 8.% 17 to 40|17,037| 8,535| 25,572| 59.% Above 40| 5,683| 805| 6,488| 15.% --------|------|-------|-------|---------- Total |28,833| 14,789| 43,622| 100. ========================================== Thus, out of the total number of 43,622 investigated, 25,572 or nearly 59 per cent. are between the ages of seventeen to forty, only 5 per cent. of females being those who passed the age of fertility. Another reason for the high birth rate of the Japanese in California is the high percentage of married people. The rate of married people among the Japanese in California suddenly rose since some ten years ago when a great number (between 400 and 900 per annum) of wives began to come in under the popular name, _picture brides_. The ratio maintained between male and female among the Japanese in California was one to six ten years ago, but at present, it is one to two.[23] Since it is estimated that there are 16,195 Japanese wives in California,[24] it is obvious that there are double that number, or 32,390 married Japanese, in California, which means that 46 per cent. of the total population are married. This is apparently a high rate, since it is 17 per cent. in Japan, 36 per cent. in Great Britain, 37 per cent. in Italy. Although exact data is lacking, judging from the fact that only less than a half of California's white population are of ages above twenty-one,[25] it may not be too far-fetched to estimate the percentage of married people at 25 per cent. of the total population.