One of the modern methods of distinguishing between dwelling-places is to divide the population into agglomerated and scattered. The agglomerated population includes all persons living in houses immediately contiguous to one another or separated only by parks, streets, etc., while the remainder of the population, generally speaking, is agricultural. But with the increasing density of population, agplomeration must naturally increase, and it becomes increasingly difficult to determine the distance which must separate houses in order to count their inhabitants in the "scattered" population. Italy and France have classified their populations as agglomerated and scattered, with these results:
France.[1]
| 1872
|
60.7
|
| 1876
|
60.4
|
| 1881
|
60.1
|
| 1886
|
61.0
|
| 1891
|
60.5
|
|
Italy.[2]
| 1871
|
74.3
|
| 1881
|
72.7
|
|
England expressed somewhat the same idea by giving the average distance between houses at various censuses, but has latterly abandoned the method. The mere fact of agglomeration, however, is probably less significant than some of the European statisticians would have us believe, and it seems to attract less attention in the census bureau than it formerly did; nor is it very important. One may well doubt if there exists any considerable difference between the rural population of France, parts of Germany and some other European countries, on the one hand, and the rural population of America on the other, that can be traced to the fact that in the one case peasants live in hamlets, and in the other case on their own farms; yet, in the former case, the per-
- ↑ Résultats statistiques du dénombrement de 1891, p. 61
- ↑ Rauchberg, Art. Bevölkerungswesen, in Conrad's Handwbk., ii, 431
