Since infant mortality is an important factor in raising the general death rate of any community, the foreign born, who include practically no babies and a large proportion of the middle-aged group, whose death rate is notably low in most populations, might be expected to have a lower general death rate than the natives of native parentage. As a matter of fact, the reverse is true. The data collected by the United States Census in 1900 definitely established this conclusion. Nineteen hundred was the only year that a careful report of mortality data by race was printed by the Bureau of the Census.1

TABLE IX

DEATH RATES PER 1,000 POPULATION, BY NATIVITY, FOR REGISTRATION AREA, 1890 AND 1900

Another factor affecting death rates is the sex distribution of the native and foreign born. In 1900 there were 102.8 native white males to every 100 native white females, while there were 117.4 foreignborn white males to every 100 foreign-born white females. On account of the higher mortality rate of males, the preponderance of this sex would tend to raise the general death rate of the foreign born.

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN DEATH RATES

As notable as the differences in death rates between general nativity groups are those between races. The Twelfth Census of the U. S., 1900, Vital Statistics, vol. iii, p. lxx.

following table shows the rates for persons wh mothers were born in various European countr The difference in age distribution, particularly the la proportion of children among the native born, expla the fact that the rate for persons with mothers b in the United States is higher than for some of other countries.

TABLE X

DEATH RATE FOR WHITE PERSONS HAVING MOTHERS BORN SPECIFIED COUNTRIES, 1900 1

It is difficult to account for the wide variation evide in this table, on the basis of the facts in hand. Occ pational, social, and economic influences are not ea to establish. Sharp changes in habits of living, food, housing, and climate, undoubtedly leave the traces in mortality rates. Their relative importan to each race cannot be gauged at present upon a st tistical basis. There are, however, a number of car ful studies which shed more light upon our problem

In 1917 Dr. William H. Guilfoy, Registrar Records of New York City Department of Healt

1 Twelfth Census of the U. S., 1900, Vital Statistics, vol. iii, p. lx

analyzed the statistics of the city with special reference to the effect of nationality on mortality.1 The following table indicates his findings:

TABLE XI

DEATH RATE PER 1,000 POPULATION OF ALL PERSONS FIVE YEARS OF AGE AND OVER, BY NATIONALITY AND SEX, IN NEW YORK CITY

Although this table and the 1900 census material quoted earlier are not strictly comparable, there are certain striking points of resemblance in the order in which we find the nationalities.

In both cases the Irish lead with the highest death rate. In both cases the Germans are found to have a higher rate than the native born, and the Hungarians a lower rate. At the bottom of both lists of nationalities come the Russians, with the lowest rate of all. The majority in this group are Jews. The Italian is the large nativity group which shows a striking discrepancy in the two tables. In the U. S. Census

1 William H. Guilfoy, M.D., New York City Department of Health, "Influence of Nationality upon the Mortality of a Community," Monograph Series No. 18, November, 1917, pp. 20–24.

table its death rate of 20.4 is next to the highest. In the New York City table the death rate for Italian males is 9.8, and females 8.5, figures less than half the earlier death rate. Further inquiry may illumine these points.

DIAGRAM 3.-VARIATION BY NATIONALITY IN DEATH RATES PER 1,000, OF ALL MALES FIVE YEARS OF AGE AND OVER IN NEW YORK CITY, 1917

1

Interesting material is furnished by Dublin in his study of death rates of persons in the older age periods, in which he contrasts the different races 1 (Table XII). Here again, a higher mortality rate than that of the native born is clearly shown for every race in the younger age group. In addition, the nationalities arranged according to highest male mortality rates in the first age period are in virtually the same order as in Tables X and XI. The Irish exceed the other nationalities by a wide margin, and Russians (largely Jews) are found second from the bottom of the list. The Italians show the lowest mortality rate in three of the four columns. This low rate corresponds with

1 Louis I. Dublin, "Increasing Mortality after Age Forty-five," Quarterly Publication of the American Statistical Association, March, 1917, pp. 514-516.

TABLE XII

DEATH RATES PER 1,000 IN PRINCIPAL NATIVITY CLASSES OF NEW YORK STATE POPULATION, 1910, BY AGE PERIOD AND SEX

the figure for the Italians in New York City, and contrasts with the figure for the country.

The nationality figure which shows a decided shift in its position in the three tables is the Italian. The figures could not be expected to coincide because of the variation in the bases; but the similarity in the order of the other nationalities is notable. Special causes no doubt operate in connection with the Italians, about which no figures are available at present.

Dr. William H. Davis, now with the Bureau of the Census in Washington, made in 1916 an illuminating analysis of mortality data for the city of Boston.1 His conclusions are similar to those of Guilfoy and Dublin:

These rates, based upon the 1910 census and the deaths of 1910, present a picture of the influence of the foreign population almost identical with the picture based upon the

1 William H. Davis, M.D., The Relation of the Foreign Population to the Mortality Rates of Boston, 1916, pp. 5-6.