and the children resulting therefrom are regarded as illegitimate. An attempt has been made to distinguish and tabulate the members of such unions, and while the results are probably below the truth, they are believed to be valuable, at least as indicating the minimum number of this class. The population of Porto Rico, as regards conjugal condition, was distributed as follows among these four classes, expressed in percentages of the total number of inhabitants of the island: Of the total population of Porto Rico nearly seven-tenths (69.7 per cent) were single. This proportion, which is exceedingly large, is comprised in great part of children. Excluding them from consideration and considering only that portion of the population which is 15 years of age and over, it is found that 45.9 per cent of what may be thus regarded as the adult population were single. Including those living together by mutual consent among the single, the percentage of single among those over 15 years of age was increased to 61.7 per cent. These proportions also are exceedingly large-much greater than in most countries of the earth. The corresponding proportion in the United States in 1890 was 36.9 per cent. The following table gives the corresponding proportion in most of the leading countries of the earth: 1 Population 16+ is the basis. Population 14+ is the basis. 3 Excluding persons living together by mutual consent. Throughout the following discussion the persons living in consensual unions, as well as the married and widowed, will be excluded from the single. Furthermore, the discussion will be confined, as regards nativity, to the native white and the colored elements, since the foreign whites form so small a proportion of the population as to be practically negligible. The following table shows the proportion of single among the native white males and females and the colored males and females: As is seen, the males were relatively in excess in both races, and among the whites to a great extent. The following tables show the distribution of the single by age, sex, and race, expressed in percentages of the total number of persons in the several age groups: Percentages of single. At the same ages the proportion of single among the males was, in the earlier years, greater than among the females. This extended among the whites up to the age of 35, beyond which the proportion of single females became the greater. Among the colored it extended to the age of 30, beyond which the proportion among the females was greater. Among the native whites, both males and females, the proportion of single diminished steadily through all ages, but among the colored it reached a minimum and then increased again. This minimum was reached among colored males at the age period of 55 to 64 years, and among females at the age period of 45 to 54 years. This phenomenon is doubtless due to the fact, as will appear hereafter, that consensual unions are much more common among the colored than among the whites, and that when such unions cease by the death of one or the other member the remaining member is placed among the single instead of being regarded as widowed. The distribution of the single among the several departments of Porto Rico shows great uniformity, the proportion of the single to the total population ranging from 68.5 up to 71.5 per cent, the latter proportion being found in the department of Bayamon, which includes the city of San Juan. The following table shows the percentages in the several departments: The fact that the department of Bayamon contained a larger proportion of single than any other of the seven departments indicates that the proportion of single was greater in urban than in rural districts. That this is true is shown by the fact that in the largest three cities of Porto Rico, taken collectively, the proportion of single was 71 per cent, while in the remainder of the island, which may be regarded as rural districts, the proportion was 69.6 per cent. THE MARRIED. In this discussion two groups of married persons will be considered: One, those legally married under the forms of the church; the other, the consensual unions already referred to. These will be discussed both together and separately. The proportion which the legally married bore to the total population was 16.6 per cent, or about one-sixth. The proportion of the inhabitants who were associated in consensual unions was 8.8 per cent, or a little more than one-half of those legally married. Hence the proportion of those living together in the marriage relation was 25.4 per cent. This is a very small proportion, smaller than in any European country and much smaller than in the United States in 1890, where it was not less than 35.7 per cent. The following table shows the proportion of those married and of those living together by mutual consent and their sum, in each of the seven departments of the island: Thus it appears that while there was considerable variation in the proportion of married in the several departments, ranging from 13.5 per cent in Humacao up to 20.8 in Aguadilla, these differences are very |
