1800 35.70
1810 36.38
1820 34.07
1830 33.55
1840 32.67 4.66 28.01
1850 35.87 10.04 25.83
1860 35.58 11.12 24.46
1870 22.63 7.25 15.38
1880 30.08 7.29 22.79
1890 24.86 10.40 15.40
1900 20.73 5.86 14.87


This table shows that it is not certain that immigration has increased
the total population of the United States, as a decrease of the natural
birth rate seems to have accompanied increasing immigration. For this
reason Professor Francis A. Walker held that it was doubtful that
immigration had added anything to the population of the United States.
At any rate, the population of the country was increasing just as
rapidly before the large volume of immigration was received as it
increased at any later time. Again, the Southern states, which have
received practically no immigrants since the Civil War, have increased
their population as rapidly as the Northern states, that is, the
increase of population among the Southern whites has been equal to that
of the Northern assisted by immigration. These two facts suggest that
the immigrants have simply displaced an equal number of native born who
would have been furnished by birth rate if the immigrants had never
come.

(3) Immigration has very largely aided in maintaining a considerable