Report on the vital statistics of the United States : made to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York / by James Wynne.

  • James Wynne
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the vital statistics of the United States : made to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York / by James Wynne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Countries. NlJMBEB I EACH df Persons to Dwelling. NUMnF.R OF EACH ] Persons to •'amily. Numder of Families to EAcn Dwelling. * 1801. 1851. 1801. 1851. 1801. 1851. Scotland, . . . 5.46 7.80 4.42 4.81 1.236 1.020 England & Wales. , 5.04 5.47 4.09 4.83 1.204 1.132 Great Britain, . . 5.G1 5.71 4.04 4.83 1.209 1.182 France, . . . . 4.85 .... 3.97 .... 1.222 Austria,. . . . 0.89 4.44 .... 1.551 Prussia, . . . . • • • 8.13 • • • • 5.13 .... 1.585 The average number of persons to each dwelling in Ireland, in 1851, was G.35 ; and in Belgium in 1846, 5.42. The number of dwellings in Ireland in 1851 is stated at 1,047,735, making the total for the British empire, including the islands, 4,717,172. Adding the dwellings of the slave population, at least, on the average, as good as those of the operative classes of Europe, and estimating one dwel- ling for six slaves, the total dwellings in the United States will be 4,197,914. By comparison, one dwelling to every 5.82 persons in Great Britain, and one to every 5.52 persons in the United States.—U. S. Census. It would seem from these statements, which must be considered as authentic, that ample provision has been made in each country included in these tables to provide a requisite supply of house room for its inhabitants; and it might reasonably be anticipated, that with a sufficient number of houses to accommodate six of the entire population in each, that excessive overcrowding could not take place. The reports, however, of the English commission to enquire into the condition of large towns, as well as those of the Committee of the Legis- lature of New York, to enquire into the condition of tenant-houses in the city of New York, the Sanitary Committee of Massachusetts, and the report of the First Committee on Public Hygiene of the American Medical Asso- ciation, show that the tendency of the poorer classes of the inhabitants of