Aggregate population has increased 957. per cent in fifty years, and
foreign population has grown faster than native:
==================+============+============+===========+===========
| | | | Per cent
| 1900. | 1890. | 1850. | of
| | | | increase,
| | | | 1850-1900.
+------------+------------+-----------+-----------
Americans | 18,375,337 | 14,117,931 | 1,785,462 | 929.0
Foreigners | 2,659,317 | 2,556,478 | 213,942 | 1143.0
+------------+------------+-----------+-----------
Total | 21,034,654 | 16,674,409 | 1,999,404 | 957.0
| | | |
Per cent American | 87.3 | 84.6 | 89.2 |
Per cent foreign | 12.7 | 15.4 | 10.8 |
------------------+------------+------------+-----------+-----------
The proportion of native born, which suffered a sharp decline between
1850 and 1890, because of the influx of foreigners to the mines of
California, Montana, and Nevada, and to the farm lands of Minnesota
and the Dakotas, is again in the ascendant, the net gain for the
decade just ended having been 2.7 per cent. The native population is
largest in the group of southwestern states and territories, Arkansas
leading with 98.9 per cent; Indian Territory, 98.8 per cent;
Louisiana, 96.2 per cent; Oklahoma, 96.1 per cent. Along the Pacific
coast it is highest in Oregon, with 84.1 per cent, and lowest in
California, with 75.3 per cent, Washington coming in between with 78.5
per cent. North Dakota, with 64.6 per cent, makes the poorest showing.
The proportion of natives in the West as a whole in 1900 was 1 per
cent above the average for the Union, which was 86.3 per cent. The per
cent of foreigners is highest in North Dakota, where it is 35.4, and
lowest in Arkansas, where it is 1.1. Minnesota is the only State
having to exceed 500,000 foreigners. California and Iowa have over
300,000 each.
The population of the West in 1850 consisted of 1,500,000 farmers and
traders in the Louisiana country, that is, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas,
Minnesota; 200,000 odd who had swarmed into Texas after it had been
wrested from Mexico, some 60,000 in New Mexico, a group of gold
diggers in California, a few thousand Mormons in Utah, and a handful
of hardy pioneers who had braved privations and hostile savages on the
plains in following the footsteps of Lewis and Clark to the Oregon
country. At that time there were not quite 2,000,000 people in all the
boundless region west of the Mississippi River. The establishing of
direct communication by the overland stage, followed by the building
of the transcontinental railroad, stimulated growth, and by 1870 the
West had attained considerable importance in population. In 1850 it
reported 8.6 per cent of the total population of the Union; 26.6 per
cent in 1890, and 27.5 per cent in 1900. In 1890 it had over four
times the population of the new Republic in 1790 and not quite twice
the population of the nation in 1820. In 1900 its population was
somewhat under that of the whole country in 1850, the ratio being
about 21 to 23. The appended table shows how the several states and
territories of the West have progressed in the matter of population:
=================+============+============+============
| 1850. | 1890. | 1900.
+------------+------------+-------------
Arkansas | 209,897 | 1,128,179 | 1,311,564
California | 92,597 | 1,208,130 | 1,485,053
Colorado | | 412,198 | 539,700
Idaho | | 84,385 | 161,772
Iowa | 192,214 | 1,911,896 | 2,231,853
Kansas | | 1,427,096 | 1,470,495
Louisiana | 517,762 | 1,118,587 | 1,381,625
Minnesota | 6,077 | 1,301,826 | 1,751,394
Missouri | 682,044 | 2,679,184 | 3,106,665
Montana | | 132,159 | 343,329
Nebraska | | 1,058,910 | 1,066,300
Nevada | | 45,761 | 42,335
North Dakota | | 182,719 | 319,146
Oregon | 13,294 | 313,767 | 413,536
South Dakota | | 328,808 | 401,570
Texas | 212,592 | 2,235,523 | 3,048,710
Utah | 11,380 | 207,905 | 276,749
Washington | | 349,390 | 518,103
Wyoming | | 60,705 | 92,531
Alaska | | 32,052 | 63,592
Arizona | | 59,620 | 122,931
Indian Territory | | 180,182 | 392,060
New Mexico | 61,547 | 153,593 | 195,310
Oklahoma | | 61,834 | 398,331
+------------+------------+------------
Total | 1,999,404 | 16,674,409 | 21,034,654
-----------------+------------+------------+------------
Louisiana, with 11.4 inhabitants to the square mile, was the most
thickly settled state in the West in 1850. Missouri followed with 9.9;
Arkansas with 4, and Iowa with 3.5. The average for the Union was 7.9.
That year the little State of Delaware, with 91,532 inhabitants,
boasted of one two hundred and sixty-third part of the total
population of the Union. Where was Oregon with about one seventh of
Delaware's population and Minnesota with less than one half of
Oregon's? In 1900 the density of the Union was 25.6 inhabitants per
square mile. Three western states, Missouri, with 45.2, Iowa, with
40.2, and Louisiana, with 30.4, exceeded the general average. In the
remainder of the states the density ranged from 0.4 in Nevada to 24.7
in Arkansas.
The colored population of the trans-Mississippi region is largely
confined to the states in the southern belt, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
Texas. In the Pacific states the colored population is principally
Chinese and Japanese.
Throughout the West, with the exception of Louisiana, the number of
females to each 100,000 men is under the national average, which is
95,353. Louisiana reports 98,871, and Utah, for obvious reasons,
follows with 95,324. Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Texas also have
between 90,000 and 95,000 females to each 100,000 men, and in
Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Indian Territory, New Mexico, and
Oklahoma, the average is over 85,000 and under 90,000. The proportion
of women to each 100,000 men is exceedingly low in the Pacific coast
and mountain states, being 80,987 in California; 73,265 in Idaho;
62,390 in Montana; 65,352 in Nevada; 77,495 in Oregon; 70,329 in
Washington; 59,032 in Wyoming. Alaska reports 38,629.
Here, as in other parts of the Union, urban population is growing
faster than rural. Comparison for this discussion is with the census
of 1870, as the returns for any previous year would make too meagre a
showing. In 1870 the West had 56 of the 226 places that reported a
population of 4,000 and over. In 1890 the number was 176 out of 899,
and in 1900 it was 251 out of 1,158. Of the West's total population in
1900, 20.3 per cent was urban, against 37.3 percent for the Union. In
1900, 17.6 per cent of the total urban population of the country lived
in the West, 13.1 per cent in 1890, and 14.1 per cent in 1870.
California with 48.9 per cent and Colorado with 41.2 are above the
average for the Union, while Washington, with 36.4 makes a close
approach to the mark. For other states the average is: Iowa, 20.5;
Kansas, 19.2; Louisiana, 25.1; Minnesota, 31; Missouri, 34.9; Montana
and Wyoming, 28.6; Nebraska, 20.8; Oregon, 27.6; Utah, 29.4; Arkansas,
6.9; Idaho, 6.2; Nevada, 10.6; North Dakota, 5.4; South Dakota, 7.2;
Texas, 14.9; Arizona, 10.6; Indian Territory, 2.5; New Mexico, 6.1;
Oklahoma, 5. The following statement shows the drift of the population
into the cities:
=================+=============+============+============+===========
| | | | Increase
| 1900. | 1890. | 1870. | per cent,
| | | | 1870-1900.
+-------------+------------+------------+-----------
Urban population | 5,024,876 | 3,723,427 | 1,145,033 | 338
Rural population | 16,009,778 | 12,950,982 | 5,732,063 | 179
+-------------+-------- ---+------------+-----------
Total | 21,034,654 | 16,674,409 | 6,877,096 | 206
-----------------+-------------+------------+------------+-----------
In 1870 Saint Louis, New Orleans, and San Francisco were the only
cities that had over 100,000 population. In 1900 ten cities exceeded
100,000, while eight other cities, Portland leading the contingent,
had between 50,000 and 100,000. Since 1880 Seattle has advanced from
one hundred and fifty-first place to forty-eighth place in the rank of
American cities; Los Angeles from one hundred and thirty-fifth to
thirty-sixth; Duluth from one hundred and fifty-second to
seventy-second; Kansas City, Kansas, from one hundred and fifty-fifth
to seventy-sixth; Portland from one hundred and sixth to forty-second;
Tacoma from one hundred and fifty-seventh to one hundred and fourth;
Spokane from one hundred and fifty-eighth to one hundred and sixth,
and Dallas, Texas, from one hundred and thirty-seventh to
eighty-eighth. So rapid is the growth of Portland and Seattle that
before many years they must take position among the country's twenty
largest cities.