and those who are not able to read. The following table gives the facts for all Porto Rico: About one-fourth of the population of Porto Rico, excluding young children, were able to read, a proportion decidedly less than that in any American state. The following table shows for the several departments the number and proportion of persons able to read. The departments are arranged in the order of increasing proportion of literates. Here, as in the previous discussion, it appears that the part of the island most imperfectly provided with school facilities, and offering the least evidence of even elementary educational attainments, is in the northwest-Aguadilla and Arecibo. The three departments having the highest proportion of persons able to read are the departments containing cities of some size. The per cent of persons over 10 who were able to read has also been computed for each municipal district and will be found graphically represented on the map facing this page. While it is not worth while to present here the figures for each district, since they can readily be computed from the data in Table XVII, it may be of interest to present the ratios for a few districts having the largest and smallest proportions of literates. The first five and last five districts in this respect were as follows: The preceding figures show clearly the degree to which the elements of education are confined to the cities of Porto Rico. Each of the three cities has a percentage of persons over 10 able to read, almost twice as high as the highest of the 66 municipal districts not containing a large city. As nearly 2,000 years ago the elements of Christianity spread first through the cities of the Roman Empire, while the inhabitants of the villages and rural districts clung to the earlier faith until the residents of the village (pagus) or of the country (heath) came to be identified as pagans and heathen with the believers in the religion that was passing away, so at the present time in Porto Rico and Cuba the elements of education seem to have spread mainly or exclusively in the cities, leaving the country folk to ignorance. This illiteracy presses upon both races alike, and so far as one can judge from the geographical position alone, it is not true in Porto Rico, as in the United States, that illiteracy is most prevalent where the colored race is in largest proportions. For the five municipal districts in Porto Rico given in the preceding list as having the smallest proportions of persons able to read have, respectively, beginning with Rincon, 14.1 per cent, 21.7 per cent, 62 per cent, 11.7 per cent, and 15.9 per cent of colored population, while the average for the whole island is 38.2 per cent. If one examines the location on the map of Porto Rico of the municipal districts with largest and smallest proportion of persons able to read, one notices that the districts with the best educated population seem to lie along the coast, while the districts having the most illiterate population generally lie in the interior. In order to determine whether this is a general fact, the percentage of illiterates to the population over 10 has been computed for the 37 coast districts, the three containing large cities being excluded, and for the 29 inland districts. It appears that along the coast outside the large cities, 20.5 per cent of the population over 10 were able to read, while in the inland districts on the average only 17.3 per cent were able to read. But it has already been shown in the discussion of race (p. 59) that the percentage of colored in the coast districts is 7.5 per cent higher than in the interior districts, and from a subsequent paragraph (p. 82) it will appear that the percentage of illiteracy among colored in Porto Rico is much higher than among the whites. It is not improbable, therefore, that there is a greater difference between the whites of the interior districts and the whites along the coast, and between the colored of the interior districts and the colored along the coast, than the figures just stated would indicate. In other words, this may be an instance of two counteracting tendencies which nearly neutralize each other. The two races in Porto Rico, as in the United States, tend somewhat to separate along lines of altitude, thus making the whites more numerous in the interior. But the inland population apparently has less opportunity and perhaps less craving to acquire the elements of educa tion, while on the other hand the white race usually has a somewhat greater eagerness for this accomplishment than the colored. In the following table the facts are given for Porto Rico by sex: The corresponding per cents of persons able to read in Cuba are: Males, 44.6; females, 41.7; and for the United States they are: Males, 87.6; females, 85.6; so that in all three countries, and indeed in most countries where the information is obtainable, ability to read is somewhat more general among men than among women. In the following table the proportion of persons able to read in each age group is given for the total population: Of the persons between 15 and 30 years of age about one-fourth were able to read, while persons in the earlier or later age periods less often possessed this ability. That the persons in the later age periods are most illiterate appears clearly from the table, and points to the conclusion, already shown by the illiteracy figures of earlier censuses, that the rising generation are enjoying better educational advantages than their parents. In the following table the per cent of persons of each sex able to read is given for the successive age periods. To economize attention the numbers from which the ratios were computed have been omitted. They may be found on page 245, f. From this table it is seen that at all age periods the ability to read is an attainment somewhat more common among men than among women, but that the difference between the two sexes is least during the early periods of life, between 10 and 20 years of age, and greatest during the years of middle life. Apparently, therefore, educational facilities are open to the two sexes more equally at the present time than a generation ago. In the following table the number and per cent of males and females able to read are given for Porto Rico, with distinction of race: Of the whites over 10 years of age, more than one-fourth are able to read, while of the colored, not quite one-sixth have this attainment. One notices also that the difference between the two sexes is greater among the whites than among the colored. The proportion of white females able to read is about two-thirds greater than the proportion of colored females, but the proportion of white males able to read is fourfifths greater than the proportion of colored males. In the following table the proportion of persons able to read at the successive age periods is given separately for native white, foreign born white, and colored: The preceding table shows most conspicuously the very high degree of literacy among the few foreign born whites in Porto Rico. At the ages at which immigrants usually come to the island, over nine-tenths of the foreign born white are able to read, while among native whites the proportion never rises to three-tenths. This high proportion of literacy among the foreign born no doubt contributes to the high degree of literacy in the cities in which these foreign born usually remain. Another inference from this table is that the difference between white and colored, like the difference between male and female, is less in the rising generation than it was in the preceding. During the ages from 10 to 20, the per cent of literates among the native whites is only about one-half greater than it is among the colored, but in the latest age period the proportion of white literates is more than three times that of colored literates. STATISTICS OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. [See Tables XXI and XXII.] In addition to the facts regarding education derived from the schedule for population and just explained, a special schedule for schools was furnished to the enumerators, of which the following is a translation: Census of Porto Rico, taken under the direction of the United States, 1899. 3. State whether the school is supported by public, private, or religious funds. 4. State whether pupils are day or boarding pupils.. 5. Number of buildings composing the school; seating capacity. 6. Number of teachers: males; females. 7. Number of pupils in the school during the last school year: 8. Number of working days in the last school year, from 1899. 9. Average daily attendance of pupils during the last school year. 1898, to Tables XXI and XXII have been prepared from the facts reported on that schedule. From Table XXII it appears that 27,118 pupils were reported on the school schedule as attending school. From Table XX it appears that 26,212 children were reported as having attended school at some time during the twelve months preceding November 10, 1899; that is, the school children reported on the school schedule were 3 per |