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Show Sex Question In The Census In 1920 there were 104 men to every 100 women in the United States. Whether this ratio has risen or fallen will be one of the most Important facts to be determined determ-ined by the 1930 census, according to Dr. Joseph A. Hill, Acting Director Direc-tor of the Census, who has pointed point-ed out that the relative number of malse to females is one of the mast fundamental factors to be considered consid-ered in any analysis of society. The sex question has always had an important place among tne list of questions asked hy the enumerators enumer-ators at each decennial census of the United States, Dr. Hill said. Even in the first very simple census schedule, one of them concerned the sex of the white persons enum-ratd. enum-ratd. Th sex of Neegroes was not considered important enough to be recorded until the census of 1840 when members of the colored race were registered according to sex for hte first time by the census bureau. bu-reau. As far back as the records go, there have always been more males-than males-than females in the United States. In 1790, th sex ratio for the white population was 103.8 to 100. The early frontier days of our history called for men more strongly than for women. The continued excess of males in the United States is accounted for mainly by immigration, since males immigrate in larger numbers than female. This explains the fact that the excess of males reached its maximum in 1910, at the end of a decade of the heaviest immigration immigra-tion this country had ever known. The sex ratio then went to 106 to 100. In 1910 it had dropped to 104 to 100, due largely to the restricted restric-ted immigration during the War, and to the number of American men who remained in Flanders. Fields. In the European countries from which our immigrants came there is as one would expect, a defic- fiency of males. The present deficiency de-ficiency in European countries, how ever, it is not solely a result of emigration. emi-gration. It reflets also the depletion deple-tion of males through . the World War in which eight million or more soldiers were killed or fatally fatal-ly wouunded. As a consequence the number of males per 100 females fe-males fell off 93.7 to 91.2 in England Eng-land from 97.4 to 91.0 in Germany, and 'from 96.6 to 90.6 in France. Within the United States the sex ratio shows a wide range of variation in different sections and localities. It is high on the Pacific Pa-cific Coast, where there are or were in 1920, 114 males to 100 females fe-males In New England, on the other hand, there is a slight deficiency de-ficiency of males, 98.5 males to 100 females The variations are doubt less largely accounted for by the migration of people from one part of the country to another. In the westward migration that has long been going on within the United Sates as well as in the immigration from Europe, there is a majority of mBles. The state having the largest excess ex-cess of males in 1920 was Nevada, 148 males to 100 females, Wyoming ranking next with a ratio of 131 to 10There is a wide range of variation varia-tion also in the sex ratio for different differ-ent cities. Taking the cities that had a population of over 100,000 in 1920 the excess of males was greatest in Akron, Ohio, 140 males to 100 females; while the most marked deficiency of males was ln Washington, D. C. where there were only 87 males to 100 of the opposite sex. The proportion of males in the population of any community is- affected in some degree de-gree by the nature of the principal industries. It is noteworthy that in Detroit he number of males per 100 females increased from 107 in 1910 to 119 in 1920. This, no doubt, reflects the increasing employment of men In the manufacture of automobiles. auto-mobiles. It is of interest to inquire what the ratio of males to females is or would be if not affected by immigration. immi-gration. It is a statistically established es-tablished fact that the number of male births is slightly greater than the number of female. But for some reson, which biologists apparently appar-ently have not yet fathomed, the female infant is more tenacious of life than her baby brother, who consequently does not maintain the numerical superiority which he had at the outset. By the time the rising generation reaches maturity the two sexes are very nearly equal ln numbers. The information obtained through the census as to the number of males and females in the population popula-tion is indispensable in the calculation calcul-ation of life tables, in the determination determin-ation of mortality rates, and In studying the incidence of disease. It is knowledge that is needed in business in legislation and in other connections. |