Since this growth of town population is quicker in the advanced industrial communities, slower in the less advanced, so it may well be the case that, in the countries which are but slightly and indirectly affected by modern industry, it does not exist at all. There exist, however, no satisfactory data upon which a judgment may be formed upon this point.
§ 4. The effects of this concentration of population upon the character and life of the people are multifarious. For convenience in grouping facts, these effects may be considered in relation to (A) physical health, (B) intelligence, (C) morals, though it will be evident that the influences placed under these respective heads act and react upon one another in many intricate and important ways.
(A) The best test of the effect of town life upon the population is afforded by a comparison of the rates of mortality of town and country population respectively.
DEATH-RATE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND, 1851-90.[275]
| Years. | Annual Deaths per 1000. | Deaths in Town Districts to 100 Deaths in Country in equal numbers living. | ||
| England and Wales. | Town. | Country. | ||
| 1851-60 | 22.2 | 24.7 | 19.9 | 124 |
| 1861-70 | 22.5 | 24.8 | 19.7 | 126 |
| 1871-80 | 21.4 | 23.1 | 19.0 | 122 |
| 1881 | 18.9 | 20.1 | 16.9 | 119 |
| 1882 | 19.6 | 20.9 | 17.3 | 121 |
| 1883 | 19.5 | 20.5 | 17.9 | 115 |
| 1884 | 19.5 | 20.6 | 17.7 | 117 |
| 1885 | 19.0 | 19.7 | 17.8 | 111 |
| 1886 | 19.3 | 20.0 | 18.0 | 111 |
| 1887 | 18.8 | 19.7 | 17.2 | 115 |
| 1888 | 17.8 | 20.9 | 17.4 | 114 |
| 1889 | 17.9 | 19.3 | 16.4 | 118 |
| 1890 | 20.9 | 17.4 | 120 | |
But as matters stand at present the statistics above quoted do not mark the full extent of the difference of healthfulness in town and country. When allowance is made for age and sex distribution in town and country population, the difference in death-rate appears much greater. For in the towns are found (a) a much larger proportion of females; (b) a larger proportion of adults of both sexes in the prime of life; (c) a much smaller proportion of very aged persons:[276] hence if conditions of health were equal in town and country, the town death-rate would be lower instead of higher than that of the country. The Report of the Census of 1881[277] calls special attention to this point, which is commonly ignored in comparing death-rates of town and country. "If we take the mean (1871-80) death-rates in England and Wales at each age-period as a standard, the death-rate in an urban population would be 20.40 per 1000, while the death-rate in the rural population would be 22.83. Such would be their respective death-rates on the hypothesis that the urban districts and the rural districts were equally healthy. We know, however as a matter of fact that urban death-rates, instead of being lower than rural death-rates, are much higher. The difference of healthiness, therefore, between the two is much greater than the difference between their death-rates."
The same facts come out in comparing Paris with the rest of France. At each age the death-rate for Paris is higher than for France.
| Age.[278] | Paris. 1886. | France. 1877-80. |
| 0 to 1 year | 230? | 170? |
| 1 to 5 years | 58.2 | 28 |
| 15 to 20 years | 9.1 | 6 |
| 30 to 40 years | 13.6 | 10 |
| 60 to 70 years | 51.2 | 41 |
The English statistics indicate a slight and by no means constant tendency towards a diminution of the difference between town and rural mortality, due no doubt to improvements in city sanitation and to some general elevation of the physical environment and standard of living among a large section of the working classes. The same slight tendency is visible in France. During the period 1861-65 the urban death-rate was 26.1, as compared with 21.5, the rural death-rate; during the period 1878-82 the rates were respectively 24.3 and 20.9.[279]