Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/781

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THE NATIVE AND FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION.
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199 in 1890, but the percentage in relation to the total population did not increase. In fact, in some of the Western States, where the percentage of foreign-born population of the total population in 1880 was very high, it is found to be lower now. This is because the increase in population comes to some extent from the children of the foreign-born, who figured as such in 1880. When the full results as to parent nativity are ascertainable, the comparison as to changes and the relative proportion of the foreign-born element as such in different localities can be clearly brought out, as stated.

The total native population of the country is 53,372,703, while the total foreign-born population is 9,249,547. This latter figure represents the total number of foreign-born living persons out of the total foreign immigration during the history of the country. Prior to 1819 the Government took no account of the number of immigrants, but the accepted estimate gives the total number between 1790 and 1819 at 250,000. In 1819 the Federal Government took account of immigration, and the reports have been very regular since then. The total immigration from 1819 to 1890 was 15,686,158. On June 1, 1890, therefore, there were living, of this total number of immigrants, 9,249,547. The reports of the Treasury Department furnish the information as to the character of this body of immigrants. Future reports of the Census Office will furnish information relative to the character of the living foreign-born, not only as to the countries furnishing foreign-born population, but all the other social facts relating thereto gathered by the census. A complete analysis, therefore, must be reserved for future publications of the Census Office. But, looking at the primary facts as furnished by the Treasury Department, it is learned that, of the 15,686,158 immigrants who have settled in this country since 1820, 3,503,227 came from Ireland and 4,546,800 from Germany, including Prussia. Adding these two numbers together, we find that Ireland and Germany have furnished 8,050,027 out of the total number of immigrants, or more than 51 per cent of that total. The number coming from Germany is one million, in round numbers, greater than the number coming from Ireland.

A study of the nationalities represented in the immigration to this country shows that a little more than 50 per cent of the whole number have come from Protestant countries, and if we should look closely into the matter we should find that the two great political parties in the United States absorb equal proportions of the total volume of immigration. In a theological and political sense, therefore, immigration has been quite equally divided.

When we look at industrial conditions, however, it is learned