Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1901 — CENTER OF POPULATION. [ARTICLE]

CENTER OF POPULATION.

Census Bureau Fixes Point Six Miles East of Columbus, Ind. In a bulletin issued by bureau the center of population of the Unit-ed-States is reviewed at length. As previously unnoiinced, the center on June 1, 11X10. was six miles southeast of Colunibtis, Ind. In the past ten years it has moved westward about fourteen miles and since 1790, the first census, 319 miles. The center of population is determined as if the surface of the country, with the population distributed upon it, were a curd, and is the point at which the card would balance. The •'median'’ point is located at Spartansburg, Ind. This is the point of intersection of the line dividing the population equally north and south with the line dividing it equally east and west. Comparison of the movements of the center of population and the "median” point shows that they do not move, in parallel lines, as from 1880 to IS9O the "median” point moved west 27 miles and north ti.G miles, while the eenter of population moved west 48 miles and north 9 miles. Since 1890 the center of population has moved westward a little over fourteen miles and southward a little less than three miles. This is the smallest movement of the center of population ever noticed since the beginning of the government. It seems to indicate quite clearly that the day of abnormal increases in population throughout the Westen States has passed by. The census figures show a large increase in the population of the north Atlantic States and this has kept the eenter of population much farther east than had been expected. In the decade ending with 1890, there was a westward movement of forty-eight miles. Thus it will be seen that in the last ten years the star of empire has taken its way westward, so far as population is concerned, only one-third as rapidly as formerly. The slight southerly movement of the center of population is due to the great movement of people Into Indian Territory. Oklahoma and Texhs. It is a topic worthy of consideration,not only ,by . statisticians, but by ethnologists as well, that the center of population has clung in remarkable way to the thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude. Assuming the westward movement to have been uniformly along the parallel of 39 degrees of latitude, the westward movement of the several decades has been as follows: 1790-18 d(), forty-one miles; 1800-1810, thirty-six miles; 1810-1820, fifty miles; 1820-1830, thirty-nine miles; 1830-1840. fifty-five miles; 1840-1850. fifty-five miles; ISSO- - eighty-one miles; 1800-1870, fortytwo miles; 1870-1880, fifty-eight miles; 1880-1890, forty-eight miles; 1890-1900, fourteen miles. This is a total westward movement of 51!) miles since 1790. Excluding Alaska, Hawaii and other recent accessions, the center of area of the United States is found to be in northern Kansas, in approximate latitude 39 degrees .55 minutes, and longitude 98 degrees 50 minutes. The center of population is therefore about three-fourths of a degree south and more than thirteen degrees east of the center of area.