LIVING CONDITIONS.

CONGESTION.a

The table which follows shows, by city, the per cent of households occupying apartments of each specified number of rooms:

TABLE 11.-Per cent of households occupying apartments of each specified number of rooms, by city.

Of the 10,206 households 31 per cent occupy apartments of three rooms and 32.8 per cent occupy apartments of four rooms. Only 15.3 per cent are in apartments of fewer than three rooms and 21 per cent in apartments of more than four rooms. The average size of apartment in Milwaukee and Chicago is between four and five In the other five cities it is between three and four rooms. The averages for the four cities on the Great Lakes are larger than for the three Atlantic coast cities.

rooms.

The information with regard to size of apartments is presented in the next table by general nativity and race of head of household: TABLE 12.-Per cent of households occupying apartments of each specified number of rooms, by general nativity and race of head of household.

a Congestion depends on many conditions other than the number of persons per room and per sleeping room. Most of these conditions are not susceptible of statistical measurement and no definite line can be drawn where overcrowding begins. In this section of the report the terms "congestion" and "degree of congestion" are expressly restricted to a comparison of the number of persons or adults per room and per sleeping room.

TABLE 12.-Per cent of households occupying apartments of each specified number of rooms, by general nativity and race of head of household Continued.

Households of immigrants occupy smaller apartments, on the whole, than do native households of native white or foreign parentage, but slightly larger than do negroes of native birth. The per cents of foreign households in apartments of one, two, three, and four rooms are higher than the corresponding per cents of households of the native-born white of native father, and the per cents in apartments of each specified size above four rooms are smaller than the corresponding per cents of the households of the native white of native father. On the whole, the Syrians occupy the smallest apartments and the Swedes the largest.

The per cent of households of each specified number of persons is shown, by general nativity and race of head of household, in the table following:

TABLE 13.-Per cent of households of each specified number of persons, by general nativity and race of head of household.

TABLE 13.-Per cent of households of each specified number of persons, by general nativity and race of head of household Continued.

The average number of persons in households studied is 5; the average in immigrant households is 5.16 persons, in households of the native-born of foreign father 4.39 persons, and in the households of the native-born white of native father 4.14 persons. Thirty-nine and six-tenths per cent of the households of the native-born of foreign father and 42.8 per cent of the households of the native-born white of native father, as contrasted with 27.6 per cent of the households of immigrants, consist of fewer than 4 persons, while 25.6 per cent of the households of the native-born of foreign father and 21.1 per cent of the native white of native father, as against 40 per cent of foreign households, are composed of 6 persons or more.

The number and per cent of households which average each specified number of persons per room are shown in the two tables following. The first table presents the figures by city:

TABLE 14.-Number and per cent of households having each specified number of persons per room, by city.

The average number of persons per room in households studied is 1.34. The average is highest in Boston, where it reaches 1.44 persons per room. The largest per cents of households in which the number of persons per room is comparatively high are in Philadelphia. In that city 11.7 per cent of the households studied show at least three persons per room and 3 per cent show at least four per

sons per room.

In the next table the number and per cent of households which have each specified number of persons per room are shown by general nativity and race of head of household:

TABLE 15.-Number and per cent of households having each specified number of persons per room, by general nativity and race of head of household.

The average number of persons per room is 1.42 among immigrant households, 0.93 among the households of the native-born white of native father, and 1.01 in the households of the native-born of foreign father. Twenty-seven and eight-tenths per cent of all immigrant households have as many as two persons per room and 5.4 per cent have as many as three persons per room, as contrasted with 5.6 per cent and 0.8 per cent of the households of the native-born white of native father, and 8.4 per cent and 0.5 per cent of the households of the native-born of foreign father. The Slovenians show the highest average number of persons per room, but the Syrians and the South Italians report larger per cents of households in which the higher degrees of congestion prevail.

The number and per cent of households which average each specified number of persons per sleeping room are shown in the two tables following. The first table presents the figures by city:

TABLE 16.-Number and per cent of households having each specified number of persons per sleeping room, by city.

About three-fourths of all households studied report 2 or more persons per sleeping room, 30.5 per cent report 3 or more, 10 per cent 4 or more, and 3 per cent 5 or more. The average is 2.32 persons. Philadelphia reports as high an average as any city and larger per cents than any other city of households having a relatively high number of persons per sleeping room.

In the second table the number and per cent of households which have each specified number of persons per sleeping room are shown by general nativity and race of head of household.

TABLE 17.-Number and per cent of households having each specified number of persons per sleeping room, by general nativity and race of head of household.