Percentage of American and Foreign LIVING BIRTHS in each of the past Seven Years. The above table shows that the proportion of Foreign births has remained quite constant since 1861; the purely American births have steadily diminished their ratio; and the births from mixed parentage have as steadily advanced. The following table presents a more extended comparison in point of time : Percentages of American and Foreign LIVING BIRTHS in the past Twenty-Two Years. The excess of foreign over native parentage is considerably greater than in any year since 1865; it is 2,776, or 647 more than the excess reported the previous year, and 1,038 more than the average for the previous four years. Foreign births are in the majority in Suffolk, Middlesex, Worcester, Hampden, Norfolk, Bristol and Berkshire. Comparing 1870 with 1869, we find that the American births have diminished by 463; the Foreign births have increased by 1,110; and the mixed (one parent foreign) have increased by 485. This evidence is confirmatory of our general remarks concerning the census of 1870. The character of our population is undergoing a great change. Surely, and not very slowly, a mixed stock of Irish, Germans and Canadians is taking the place of the purely English stock which has possessed Massachusetts for more than two centuries. The tide of immigration flows the stronger with our increasing wealth and general prosperity. There is much hard work to be done, unskilled labor is in demand, and Americans are not ready or willing to supply it from their own ranks. Here are facts for the statesman, the educator and the moralist. Plural Births.-Three hundred and forty-seven women in Massachusetts gave birth in 1870 to 697 children. Three hundred and forty-four had twins and three had triplets. The proportion of women in labor who give birth to more than one child is each year nearly the same,-one in every hundred. The number of cases of triplets is three less than in the previous year. Illegitimates.-The number reported is 285, one less than in 1869. There are 131 males and 154 females. As has been a general rule, the latter (females) predominate, although for what reason we are at a loss to imagine. Stillborn. The number reported was 1,019, 75 less than in 1869. MARRIAGES. The whole number of marriages reported for 1870 was 14,721, a decrease of 105 as compared with 1869. One person in every 49-49 of the people was married in 1870. Marriages are most numerous in the autumn; next, the spring months; then winter and summer. It will be observed that, as a rule, those counties show the highest rates which contain the cities of the State. AGES at Marriage of 14,670 MEN and of 14,654 WOMEN. 326 5,625 4,528 1,872 915 469 326 235 155 121 56 6,494 2,992 1,025 581 301 160 73 54 28 14 AGES at Marriage of 12,330 BACHELORS and 13,065 MAIDS. AGES at Marriage of 2,310 WIDOWERS and 1,560 WIDOWS. 49 303 409 419 320 255 210 139 115 50 14 137 336 328 294 191 113 57 46 25 11 02 The average age of all the men married in 1870, was average age of all the women married in 1870, was average age of men marrying for the first time, was average age of women marrying for the first time, was These ages correspond to a year, and even to a month, with those of persons marrying in 1869. |