Twelve of the 14 cities had a larger proportion of persons able to read than any of the 6 provinces, and all had a larger proportion of literates than any province but Habana. This shows clearly that illiteracy is especially prevalent in the rural districts of Cuba. The facts for city and country are summarized in the following table:

Rather more than one-third of the total population of Cuba were able to read, but the proportion rose in Habana city to nearly two-thirds, and in the 13 other cities it averaged nearly three-fifths, while in rural Cuba it was not quite one-fourth. The per cents for the several cities have already been given, but the figures for the provinces after the cities have been subtracted are given below:

The largest proportion of literates is found in rural Habana, where one-third of the total population was able to read; the smallest proportion in the provinces at the ends of the island, Santiago and Pinar del Rio, where from one-sixth to one-fifth were able to read. The four central provinces all had proportions above the average for rural Cuba.

There are two Spanish censuses, those of 1861 and 1887, in which the number of Cubans able to read was reported. In the following table the results of those censuses are brought into comparison with the present:

In thirty-eight years the per cent of the population able to read has nearly doubled.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

The total number of persons attending school in Cuba during the year preceding October 16,1899, was 87,935 (Tables XIX and XXI), or between 5 and 6 per cent of the total population. But in the discussion on age it was shown (p. 86) that the children in Cuba between 5 and 15, and so at the ages when school attendance is most common, were unusually numerous. Hence it is better to compare the children attending school with those of school age. From Table XXI it appears that only 1,295 children under 5 or over 17 attended school, that is, less than 1 per cent of the entire number. The school age may therefore be assumed to be 5-17, and this slight proportion of persons over or under these limits neglected.

It has already been shown that the proportion of persons able to read, and probably also the proportion of children attending school, was much higher in the cities of Cuba than in the rural districts. In the following table the facts for the five cities included in Table XXI are given: