Ah, Men

There will soon be fewer men than women in the U.S., figured the Census Bureau. For 33 years the proportion of U.S. males to females has narrowed. Each year, with 100,000 fewer men, the U.S. has acquired 100,000 more spinsters. In 1910, men outnumbered women by 2,800,000. Soon -- some time this year -- women will be in the majority, regardless of war casualties. The U.S. will then be classed by census experts as an "elder" nation (in a "youthful" nation, men predominate).

One explanation: in three and a half decades, science has whittled down the death rate of women in childbirth, has softened other feminine hazards.

Other 1940 Census findings, now released:

>Some 3,679 old people solemnly assured census takers that they were centenarians. The Bureau admitted that the figure was dubious: many an oldster (far under the 100-year mark) has a fuzzy memory, a puckish wit, or both.

> New U.S. population figure, as of July 1943: 136,500,000.

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