entage constitute slightly more than onehalf-53.8 per cent. THE NEGRO ELEMENT In the United States as a whole the negro element has increased since 1890 18.1 per cent, whereas the white element has increased as much as 21.4 per cent. The more rapid increase of the white is true also of the South Atlantic and South Central divisions, where nearly nine-tenths of the negro population are concentrated. The only Southern states in which the persons of negro descent have increased more rapidly than the whites are Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. The negro element, however, forms such a small percentage of the population of the two latter states (4.5 and 7.7 per cent respectively) that they may be practically disregarded. The diagrams on pages 386 and 387 show the percentage of the negro element in the various southern states at each census period since 1790.* * South Carolina and Mississippi are the only states in which the negro element is now in the majority. Ten years ago the whites were in the minority in Louisiana, but they have since increased in this state * The diagrams showing the percentage of whites and negroes in certain states at each census are based on similar diagrams in Statistical Atlas of the United States, Eleventh Census, by Henry Gannett, p. 18. twice as fast as the negroes. In Kentucky they have increased three times as fast, and in Texas one and one-half times as fast as the negroes. THE CHINESE, JAPANESE, AND INDIANS There has been a considerable decrease in the number of Chinese in the United States during the past decade. In the United States proper the number fell from 107,488 to 89,863, a loss of 17,625, or 16.4 per cent. The Chinese are now more widely distributed throughout the country. In all the divisions excepting the Western division there are more Chinese than there were ten years ago. The state of California has lost over 26,000, but Oregon and Washington have gained a small number. In Hawaii there are 25,767 Chinese. The following table shows the distribution of the Chinese in the United States proper: The number of Japanese in the United States proper has increased more than ten fold since 1890. Ten years ago there were only 2,039 Japanese in the country, whereas at the time of the last census they numbered 24,326. As might naturally be expected, a very large proportion, amounting to 96.1 per cent, are concentrated in the Western division. The Japanese element in Hawaii has increased five fold, and now amounts to 61,111, about one-third of the total population of the islands. The distribution of the Japanese in the United The Indians also have decreased during the decade, but not nearly as rapidly as has been commonly supposed. There are 6,847 less than in 1890, a loss of only 2.5 per cent. About one half of these Indians are taxed. The census shows an increase in the number of Indians in Alaska of 4,182, but probably the increased figures are because of the more careful enumeration that was possible. The number of Indians in the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is now somewhat less than a quarter of a million-237,196 as against 248,253 in 1890. In Alaska itself there are 29,536 Indians. DISTRIBUTION OF MALES AND The number of men and women throughout the United States was more evenly balanced in 1900 than ten years before. Each of the states of the Western division shows a larger proportion of females and a smaller proportion of males than in 1890. On the other hand, in the North Atlantic and South Atlantic divisions, considered as a whole, where ten years ago there was a slightly larger proportion of females, there was in 1900 an equal proportion of both sexes. There are eleven states, including the District of Columbia, in which there are more females than males. Each of these states is situated on the Atlantic coast. Massachusetts has the largest majority of females, having 70,398 more women than men. New York has a female majority of 39,334 * the District of Columbia, 14,710; North Carolina, 16,456; South Carolina, 10,526, and Georgia, 9,929. Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut have a majority of the male sex. Pennsylvania there are 106,967 more males, due principally to the large element of the foreign-born working in the In all the states of mining districts. In the North Central, South Central, and Western divisions there is a majority of the males. The largest excess of males is in Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada, in which states the males constitute more than 60 per cent of the entire population. The negro element is the only element of the population in which there are more females than males, there being 54,347 more females of negro descent than males. It is interesting to note that the native whites of native parents have the largest proportion of males to females-51 per cent males and 49 per cent females. The native whites of foreign parents are very evenly balanced as to sex. Naturally there is a large excess of males in the foreign-born element, while six sevenths of the Chinese and two thirds of the Japanese are males. G. H. G. *The excess in this State is confined to native whites of native and foreign parentage, the foreign whites, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians showing an excess of males. |