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Show U. S. Population Explodes With Suburban Boom If you think that our cities are teeming with children, you're right. But if you would like to get a first-hand look at the biggest population "explosion" in the nation's history, just drive out beyond the city limits. Don't be misled by acres of lawns and fields, cautions the Institute of Life Insurance. They simply serve as elbow room for the fastest-growing segment of our population the families fami-lies who live in the suburbs and rural areas. Farm families not included. Although farmers are producing more food every year, the farm population is steadily growing smaller. The families who are increasing so rapidly are what the Census Bureau calls "rural non-farm" families. Of course, it is obvious to everyone that there has been a widespread "flight" from the cities into the suburbs and open country. Many of the families who set up house out of town are young couples, and it is they who are responsible for the population "explosion." As the Census Bureau explains it, our population increase since 1950 consists mostly of children under the age of 15 and the rural non-farm families have provided the most rapid growth in this age group. Take this example: in rural non-farm areas there was an 85 per cent increase in the number of children under 10 in the last decade. There was only a 25 per cent increase in city areas. Statistics aside, this means that millions of young families decided in the 1950's that they wanted a home of their own, and they went out and bought one. Why select a home out of town? One important reason is that many families perhaps most liked the idea of living in a house away from the city, where their children could run and play with greater freedom. Fortunately, there was plenty of land available out of town. Unprecedented prosperity since the end of Word War II, and faith in future prosperity, made it possible to build new homes at a high rate. Quite a few of these homes were pur- chased with the aid of life insurance funds. The most recent , estimate shows that funds borrowed from life insurance com- panies have enabled American families to purchase 4,600,000 1 homes since 1946. |