Population

The Bureau of the Census last week made public its estimate of what the population of the U. S. will be next July 1: 117,135,817 men, women and children. This is an estimate. In part it is based on state censuses taken last year in eight states. In part it is based on the annual recorded excess of births over deaths in states in which the registration of these human milestones is believed to be essentially accurate. In part it is based on the past rate of growth in various states, and in part on the excess of the number of persons entering the country over those leaving. As compared with the actual census of 1920 and the estimate for July 1, 1925, the population figures are:

1920 census 105,710,620

1925 estimate 115,378,094

1926 estimate 117,135,817

Three states which showed decreases in population between 1910 and 1920 are estimated as having the same population in 1926 that they had six years ago: Mississippi 1,790,618; Vermont 352,428; Nevada 77,407. (Nevada has the smallest population of any state.)

The states estimated to have the largest populations are: New York 11,303,296; Pennsylvania with 9,613,570; Illinois 7,202,983; Ohio 6,600,146; Texas 5,312,661.

Within a day or two of the Federal estimate, the National Bureau of Economic Research made public its estimate of U. S. population for Jan. 1, 1926: 115,940,000. The estimates of this Bureau are slightly lower than those of the Census Bureau and do not cover exactly the same period (are for calendar instead of fiscal years). The National Bureau of Economic Research calculated a population growth of 1,629,000 for the calendar year of 1925; the Census Bureau calculated a population growth of 1,757,723 for the fiscal year 1925-26. But the figures are sufficiently close to give point to the remarks of the former:

"The total population gain in 1925 was slightly larger than the average for the last 17 years, but materially less than that of 1923, when the large amount of immigration contributed to a population increase of 1,996,000, as in 1909, when, for the same cause, the population growth ran up to 2,173,000."