Population density

“ Education, religion, art, science, and literature are all dependent on a certain density of population. Schools, universities, churches, the daily newspaper, great publishing houses, libraries, and museums come only when the population per square mile is expressed by more than one unit, and their decay is one of the first symptoms that population is declining. ”

“ A glance at the map showing the density of population in the various provinces suggests an obvious remedy, and I am happy to say it is already being applied. The population of the congested districts of the centre is gradually spreading out, like a drop of oil on a sheet of soft paper, towards the more thinly populated regions of the south and east. ”

“ If these estimates are judged reliable, it would be desirable to use them as a basis for estimating the population of the remaining groups. When a detailed analysis of the ecological or demographical factors involved is lacking, it is sometimes necessary to fall back on rather simplistic assumptions to attain the desired end. Cook goes rather far in this direction, using simply the average population density per square mile of the known groups to estimate the population of the unknown groups. ”

“ It is a well-known law of population that, other things being equal, the rate of natural increase of population varies in an almost inverse ratio to its density, so that as the density of the population was increased by the addition of aliens, the rate of natural increase declined, which is demonstrable from statistics furnished by the census records of this country. ”

“ How Industries adapt themselves to Unequal Density of Population.—In view of this fact it is necessary to recognize a proximate rather than an ultimate static state as that toward which the adjustments now going on are immediately tending. We will treat the unequal density of population within our economic society as something which will last, not forever, but so long that it will not be removed or appreciably affected within the period required for the other adjustments that we are studying. ”

“ There is no minimum total population for UA extended cities; however, non-UA extended cities must have at least 2,500 inhabitants. Before the 1990 census, the Census Bureau defined extended cities only for incorporated places inside UAs. The delineation of non-UA extended cities provides better population density statistics for the Nation’s urban population by excluding those portions of incorporated places that contain vast expanses of empty or near-empty land. ”

“ In most cases, however, a very dense population can only be maintained in regions where mineral resources have fixed the site of great manufacturing industries. The maximum density of population which a given region can support is very difficult to determine; it depends partly on the race and standard of culture of the people, partly on the nature and origin of the resources on which they depend, partly on the artificial burdens imposed and very largely on the climate. Density of population is measured by the average number of people residing on a unit of area ”

“ A long period would be needed to bring about this adjustment even within the circumscribed area where influences that make for change are very active and where obstacles are far smaller than they are in the uncivilized regions.
Essential Density of Population.—A perfectly static state requires, not a perfectly equal distribution of population, but such a distribution that there is no reason for further migrating. The power of the soil to feed its inhabitants varies with its fertility. Where the land is highly productive a dense population may live easily ”

“ Increase in the population of a given land is accompanied by a decrease in the share which each individual can claim as his own. This progressive readjustment to a smaller proportion of land brings in its train the evolution of all economic and social processes, reacting again favorably on density of population and resulting eventually in the greatly increased social group and enlarged territory of the modern civilized state. ”

“ Kroeber, 1925a, p. 883. The breakdown has been changed somewhat to accommodate boundary changes; the total remains the same. The population density, according to Kroeber's figures, is 1.6 persons per sq. mi.
[6] Cook, 1956. The breakdown has been changed somewhat to accommodate boundary changes; the total remains the same. The population density, according to Cook's figures, is 4.6 persons per sq. mi.
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The corpus of information provided by the methods outlined above would be useful in two ways. ”

“ Practically the population finds it convenient to bear toward the center of the city, and, the more it bears that way, the more it is to its interest to do so. Consequently, the density of the population diminishes from the center toward the circumference. ”

“ The average density of persons to the square mile is 371·41. In some districts the average density of the rural population exceeds 1000 to the square mile, and has caused some alarm. Hitherto there have been no migratory movements on a large scale, owing to the conservative habits of the people and the fondness of the agricultural community for their ancestral fields and homesteads. ”

“ There is room in the world, no doubt, and even in old countries, for a great increase of population, supposing the arts of life to go on improving, and capital to increase. But even if innocuous, I confess I see very little reason for desiring it. The density of population necessary to enable mankind to obtain, in the greatest degree, all the advantages both of co-operation and of social intercourse, has, in all the most populous countries, been attained. ”

“ What is involved in a Full Study of the Relative Density of Populations.—A full treatment of the subject of the comparative density of population in different places would include an extended study of the kinds of industry which find their natural homes in densely peopled countries and of those which flourish in sparsely peopled ones, and a much more detailed tracing than it is possible here to undertake of those changes in the character of industries everywhere which result from a leveling out of differences in population. ”

“ In some, it may be the difficulty of maintaining communication with older settlements; in others, that the land is unproductive or the probable gains not sufficiently attractive; and lastly, the great density of the native population in certain districts is likely to prove a hindrance that it may require many years to overcome. ”

“ Every advance to a higher state of civilization has meant a progressive decrease in the amount of land necessary for the support of the individual, and a progressive increase in the relations between man and his habitat. The stage of social development remaining the same, the per capita amount of land decreases also from poorer to better endowed geographical districts, and with every invention which brings into use some natural resource. The following classification122 illustrates the relation of density of population to various geographic and socio-economic conditions. ”

“ Yet the data supplied by the European possessions, taken in connection with the reports of the most competent travellers, would seem to show that the actual population is far less than had been conjectured from the density of the villages in some of the coast districts, falling in fact to considerably under three millions. ”

“ The density of population is also a determining factor with regard to many phases of community life, for it is obviously much easier to carry on many community activities where the people live fairly close together and not very far from the community center, than where the country is but sparsely settled. Even with automobiles and telephones, the distance between homes will have a large influence in determining the nature of community activities. ”

“ When we say that a country is overpopulated we speak in relative terms, inasmuch as the overpopulation of a country does not depend upon the density of the population alone, but also upon the ability of that country to produce a sufficient amount of foodstuffs to maintain its population. ”

“ It follows, in turn, that what promotes specialization is likely to promote social sustenance. We have spoken of density of population. Let us analyze this expression. What do we mean by saying that population is dense? The answer is extremely obvious, but for the sake of the argument let us treat it as if it needed to be given. We mean that our human beings are close together. World-crowding is the only way to get them close together in person while occupying all the soil and mines. ”

“ The geographical distribution of the population of the world is therefore extremely irregular, and, omitting from consideration areas but recently colonized, the density is regulated by the means of subsistence within reach. “La population, ” says G. de Molinari, “ a tendance de se proportionner a son débouché.” These, in their turn, depend mainly upon the character of the people who inhabit the country. Even amongst savages there are few communities, and those but sparse, which subsist entirely upon what is directly provided by nature. ”

“ We should not permit overcrowding in cities. In certain European cities it is provided by law that the population of towns shall not be allowed to exceed a very limited density for a given area, so that the increase in density must be continually pushed back into a broad zone around the center of the town, this zone having great avenues or parks within it. ”

“ The density of population was forty-two persons to an acre, twenty-six thousand six hundred and seventy-four to a square mile. The population, estimated to the middle of the year, amounted to three million six hundred and sixty-four thousand one hundred and forty-nine. ”

“ But, for instance, in Saxony, population has for a long time increased most rapidly, in those places where it is already densest. Compare Engel, loc. cit. The five German kingdoms and Mecklenburg-Strelitz hold the same relative rank, on a ten-year average, in relation to the number of births that they do to density of population, (v. Viehbahn, Statistik des Z. V., II, 321 seq.) ”

“ The very conditions of life among our people have undergone great changes. The interior movements of population have become more rapid and extensive, and half a million of square miles are now settled more or less densely, which in 1850 were unsurveyed, or even unexplored.
As the census of a great nation is a very practical work, into which theory and preconceived notions should enter as little as possible, it would seem that such great changes of condition, as well as the advances made meanwhile in the science of legislation and in the art of government, justify and require a new census law. ”

“ And can there be a doubt that the large disproportion in the distribution of the population between city and country, in the interior, will be lessened, so that, instead of being, as now, only one to five or six, they will rapidly approach the proportion of one to two or three? ”

“ However, Ranke observed just the opposite, and there are other objections to be raised against this theory, based on the data of recruiting. These town-dwellers of high stature are perhaps only conscripts too quickly developed; town life accelerates growth, and town-dwellers have nearly reached the limit of their height while dwellers in villages have not finished growing. This is so true that in countries where statistics have been taken of the civic population, as in England for example, the population of the towns is shorter in stature than that of the country. ”

“ Throughout the country, urban and suburban areas tend to be given higher representation ratios than do rural areas. [137]
The stark fact is that, if, among the numerous widely varying principles and practices that control state legislative apportionment today, there is any generally prevailing feature, that feature is geographic inequality in relation to the population standard. [138] Examples could be endlessly multiplied. ”

“ It is no paltry question of an outlet for the surplus products of a mere nation of seventy-five millions that confronts you. Your mathematical professors will tell you that, at the ratio of increase established in this Nation by the census returns for the century just closing, its population would amount during the next century to the bewildering and incomprehensible figure of twelve hundred millions. ”

“ DENSE POPULATION.—OVER-POPULATION.
The nation's economy attains its full development wherever the greatest number of human beings simultaneously find the fullest satisfaction of their wants.
A dense population is not only a symptom of the existence of great productive forces carried to a high point of utilization ”