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Show iwipPY DMA i :i,jv.- avail- , " .", .'."p c.v-..--::l:H Eceen'-1-'-1 r. the average : ' 7 5 in the A:r.er- '..;'u"cV:uUuing to be-: be-: ,. D-ec:or William ;'tJ ;::!.-;:"of the Bureau cf the L"- J n.,u.t!t of Commerce; Ct:- '".'..""ro'.jdav. The average Sa-ion P- oc,upied dwelling , io t'-.e United States m WW , vhich mure may be com- VhH the agerage popu .on per private family in 1930. The historical decline m the av Jre pooulafon per family is m-Sd'bythe m-Sd'bythe averages for eaiher nd 4.9 iir 1890. The average population pop-ulation per family, which had been decreasing at the rate of two tenths of a person pe since 1890, as indicated by these f,wes decreased three-tenths of arson, or half as much again between 1930 and 1940; or, maUng the comparison directly with 1890, the average population per family in 1940 is less by 1.1 persons than it was fifty years ago. The decline in the average size of the family in the United States is due primarily pri-marily to increased urination and the decline in the birth rate. Between 1930 and 1940 the population pop-ulation of the United States increased in-creased 7.2 percent, but the num- ber of families increased Ib.i percent per-cent If there had been no change in the average size of family from 1930 to 1940, ihe percentage increase in-crease in the number of families ould of course, have been the same as that in population. Instead In-stead of the increase of about 4 900,000 families which actually ( occurred during the past decade. according to preliminary data the ; increase would have amounted to only a little over 2,000,000 families. , The decline in the size of fam- g ily may thus be said to account f for or explain more than on.- half of the gain in the number of f families between 1930 ana a Among the geographic divisions. g the average 1940 population per c occupied dwelling ..unit ranged n from 3.2 in the Pacific Division to 4.2 in the South Atlantic Divi- c sion. In only two divisions was the fc. average 4 persons or more inl94U, whereas all but one division had c averages of 4 persons or more in g 1930. Among the States, the range In the average population per occupied occu-pied dwelling unit was from 3.2 in Washington, Oregon, and California, Califor-nia, to 4.5 In North Carolina. Twelve other States, nine of them in the South, had averages of 4 persons or more, while no State outside the Far West showed an average less than 3.5. |