TACOMA’S population, according to the federal census, the annual school
census, the directory lists, and other accepted bases of calculation, has
increased as follows:
City City and
Limits. Suburbs.
1870 73
1880 1,098
1900 37,714 42,311
1904 60,250 67,405
[Illustration: Mount Tacoma from Point Defiance.]
The figures for 1870, 1880 and 1900 above quoted are from the federal
census. The number of names of individuals, exclusive of all names of
firms, corporations, buildings and the like, in the city directory for
1900, published by R. L. Polk & Co., was 16,951. The district canvassed
for the city directory includes the immediate suburbs, which are to all
intents and purposes a part of the community. The ratio between the
number of names in the directory of 1900 and the population of the city
and immediate suburbs, as shown by the last federal census, was 1 to 2½.
The number of names of individuals in the TACOMA city directory in 1900
and subsequent years with the population as indicated by the use of the
multiplier 2½ is as follows:
Names in Estimated
Year. City Directory. Population.
1900 16,951 *42,372
1901 20,418 51,045
1902 22,186 55,455
1903 25,057 62,642
1904 26,962 67,405
* Federal enumeration, 42,311.
[Illustration:
1—Tacoma Hotel and Totem Pole.
2—Tacoma Theatre.
3—Northern Pacific Headquarters Building.
4—Tacoma Chamber of Commerce Building.
]
This estimate of population in 1904 is confirmed by the annual school
census returns. The school census of 1904 for school district number
10, which is coextensive with the city limits, reports 13,389 children
of school age residing in the district, as compared with 9,443 in 1900.
The census of the districts contiguous to the city and embracing its
immediate suburbs show a school population in 1904 of 1,426, as compared
with 646 in 1900. The use of the multiplier 4½ applied to the school
census returns, indicates a population within the city limits in 1904 of
60,250 and in the city and its immediate suburbs of 66,667. Other cities
in the state employ a larger multiplier than 4½ to estimate population
from their school census returns. For example, Seattle applies the
multiplier 6½, and Spokane 5¾ to their school census returns in order
to confirm their liberal estimates of population. TACOMA is content to
employ a safe and conservative method of calculation.
Postoffice receipts more than confirm the foregoing estimates as to
TACOMA’S growth and present population. The receipts of the TACOMA
postoffice for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, were $113,599, as
compared with $63,928 for the year ending June 30, 1900. The increase
in postoffice receipts is at the rate of 14.7 per cent. in one year;
28.2 per cent. in two years; 53.7 per cent. in three years and 77.4 per
cent. in four years. The increase in population as above shown by an
increase of 10,011 in the number of names in the city directory is at the
considerably lower rate of 59.0 per cent. in four years.