make up the aggregate registration area, whose total estimated population in 1909 was 48,776,893, or 55.3 per cent of the total estimated population of continental United States. The deaths in that area in 1909 were 732,538. The death rate for 1909-15-was lower than that for 1908, which was 15.4, and was lower than that for any previous year of registration, and probably the lowest which has ever occurred in the history of the United States. The following table shows the number of deaths in 1907, 1908 and 1909 in the registration cities having a population in 1900 of over 100,000: Included in Pitts 3.456 3.740! 4,146 "Non-registration. Annexed to Pittsburg, December 9, 1907. burg. Includes Allegheny. DEATHS IN REGISTRATION AREA, 1908 AND 1909, BY SEX AND AGE PERIODS. The following table shows the number of deaths in the registration area in 1908 and 1909, according to sex and different age periods: DEATH RATE IN REGISTRATION STATES. The following table gives the death rates per 1,000 of estimated population for the registration states, Ohio excepted, during the five years from 1904 to 1908, inclusive, and for the quinquennial period 1901 to 1905: No population figures or estimates for 1909 being available because of the preparation for making a new census, the death rate in 1909 of only two states, Michigan and Rhode Island, being announced in the Census Bureau's mortality bulletin for 1909. The 1910 figures for Michigan and Rhode Island were received in time to compute these two death rates, which are: For Michigan, 13.1, and for Rhode Island, 15.6. DEATHS IN THE REGISTRATION AREA IN 1909 OF MALES AND FEMALES AND THE CHIEF CAUSES OF MORTALITY DEATH RATE OF AMERICAN CITIES, 1904 TO 1909. The following table shows the death rate for various American cities from 1904 to 1905 and the average quinquennial rate from 1901 to 1905: Number of deaths from all causes1 for 1,000 1 Exclusive of stillbirths. Rates in bold-faced type are based upon census figures or intercensal estimates, except that for St. Joseph, which is computed directly upon the population, April 15, 1910. Other rates based upon postcensal estimates, are subject to revision. DEATH RATE IN CITIES OF THE WORLD. The death rates of the larger American cities for the year lie for the most part between 14 and 17 per 1,000 and are about 2 or 3 per 1,000 lower than they were ten years ago. Comparison with the death rates of foreign cities for recent years may be made by means of the following table, taken from the annual summary published by the Registrar General of England and Wales: STATISTICS OF ILLITERACY. The term "illiterate" includes all persons at least ten years of age unable to write their own language, the majority of them being also unable to read. In continental United States illiterates form about one-tenth (106.6 per 1,000) of the population at least ten years of age. The available statistics of illiteracy in European countries generally refer to army recruits, and are, therefore, fairly comparable with the statistics in the United States for native white males twenty-one to twenty-four years of age. According to this comparison, the proportion of illiterates in continental United States (38 per 1,000 for the class referred to) is less than that in any European country, except Germany, Sweden and Norway, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and Scotland. In the Netherlands, England and France the number per 1,000 is not much higher than in the United States, but in the remaining countries of Europe illiteracy is much more prevalent than in this country. The following table shows the proportion of illiterates in specified groups of population in the principal countries of Europe and in the United States, the white male population of the United States between twenty-one and twenty-four years of age being taken as an equivalent to the army recruits, from which the proportion of illiterates in most European countries is derived: PROPORTION ILLITERATE IN SPECIFIED POPULATION OF COUNTRIES OR STATES IN EUROPE, AT RECENT DATES.* Derived from the report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 18991900, Vol. 1. NUMBER AND PROPORTION ILLITERATE IN POPULATION AT LEAST TEN ILLITERATE POPULATION BY STATES. 444.7 567.6 157,949,824 47,413,559||6,180,069 6,324,702||106.61133.4 The following table shows the illiterate population ten years of age and upward in 1900. by states and territories and by sex, race and nativity: |