Central Europeans in the United States

Central Europeans in the United States

Unknown

WWP21574

1917 June

Library of Congress, Woodrow Wilson Papers, 1786-1957

CENTRAL EUROPEANS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Washington, D. C., June ____ 1917, The natives of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey now residing in the United States aggregate approximately 4,662,000, or about 4 per cent of the total population of the country.

The foregoing total is announced by Director Sam. L. Rogers, of the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce, as the result of a calculation based on the census figures of 1910, the reports of the Bureau of Immigration for the period between 1910 and the present time, and the estimated mortality during that period. Although it is not possible by this method to determine with absolute exactness the number of natives of the countries named now living in the United States, it is believed that the results obtained represent a reasonably close approximation to the facts. These 4,662,000 foreigners are distributed, according to country of birth, as follows:

Germany ..... 2,349,000
Austria .... 1,376,000
Hungary ..... 738,000
Turkey ..... 188,000
Bulgaria ..... 11,000

It is impossible to say whether the proportions of aliens ---that is, persons who have not applied for naturalization certificatesamong these foreigners are approximately the same in 1917 as they were in 1910; but, assuming this to be the case, the number of male aliens 21 years of age and over included in the above total would be approximately 964,000, or about 3.2 per cent of the total number of male inhabitants of the United States 21 years of age and over. The distribution of these aliens, according to country of birth, would be as follows:

Germany ..... 136,000
Austria .... 447,000
Hungary ..... 280,000
Turkey ..... 93,000
Bulgaria ..... 8,000

The proportion of aliens among male Germans 21 years of age and over is very much smaller than the corresponding proportions for the other countries named, having been only a little more than 11 per cent in 1910, as against approximately 63 per cent for Austrians, 74 per cent for Hungarians, 82 per cent for Turks, and nearly 90 per cent for Bulgarians.