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Vol. 2.

MONTHLY BULLETIN.

Entered as second-class matter August 15, 1905, at the post office at
Sacramento, California, under the Act of Congress of July 16, 1894.

SACRAMENTO, AUGUST, 1906.

No. 3.

STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

San Francisco
Sacramento
..Chico
Los Angeles

MARTIN REGENSBURGER, M.D., President,
F. K. AINSWORTH, M.D.
San Francisco A. C. HART, M.D.
WALLACE A BRIGGS, M.D., Vice-President,
O. STANSBURY, M.D..
Sacramento W. LE MOYNE WILLS, M.D.
N. K. FOSTER. M.D., Secretary Sacramento

HON. W. I. FOLEY, Altorney.

Los Angeles

STATE BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS.

N. K. FOSTER, M.D., State Registrar. Sacramento | GEORGE D. LESLIE, Statistician.........

Sacramento

STATE HYGIENIC LABORATORY.

ARCHIBALD R. WARD, D.V.M., Director.....

University of California, Berkeley

STATISTICS OF MARRIAGES: 1905-1906.

Summary.-Altogether 17,932 marriages were reported to the California State Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1905-1906, the first year covered by the new law requiring marriages to be registered.

San Francisco reported 4,230 marriages, or 23.6 per cent of the State total, despite the loss of records in April, 1906.

There were also over 2,000 marriages for the year in Los Angeles and Alameda counties; between 600 and 1,000 in Santa Clara, Sacramento, and Marin; and between 400 and 500 in Fresno, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Bernardino, and Orange.

For an estimated State population of 1,784,521 in 1905 the 17,932 marriages in 1905-1906 give a rate of 10.0 per 1,000 population, though complete returns from Los Angeles county for the year would make the State rate 11.1 instead.

The marriage-rate is higher for the seven counties of Southern California than for the fifty north of Tehachapi. The rate is also higher for the metropolitan area, comprising San Francisco and the other bay counties, than for the rural counties of Northern and Central California.

Among the individual counties, Marin shows the highest marriagerate, 36.4 per 1,000 population, followed by Orange 18.5, San Mateo 17.9, Sacramento 17.0, and Los Angeles 15.6 (corrected rate). The marriage-rates are also above the State average, 10.0, for the following counties: San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Riverside, San Diego, San Joaquin, Fresno, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Stanislaus, and San Luis Obispo.

The statistics indicate that there is a decided tendency for persons living in rural counties to be married at the largest city easily accessible. This seems the readiest explanation of the relatively high marriage-rates not only for the metropolitan area in Northern and Southern California and for Los Angeles county in Southern California, but also for the counties containing such cities as Sacramento, San José, Stockton, Fresno, Visalia, Modesto, and San Luis Obispo.

There is also a counter movement by which residents of very large cities, like San Francisco or Los Angeles, prefer to be married in suburban counties. Thus it happens that the marriage-rates are much higher for Marin, San Mateo, and Alameda counties than for the metropolis itself, and that in Southern California the rate is highest for Orange rather than for Los Angeles county. This movement is particularly marked on San Francisco Bay, where San Rafael, in Marin county, is a veritable Gretna Green, especially, as shown later, for divorcees.

In 13,182 of the 17,932 marriages in 1905-1906, or 73.5 per cent of all cases, the marriage was the first for both parties. The per cent of first marriages is highest, 76.8, for the coast counties of Northern California, followed by 76.2 for the interior counties of Central California and 76.0 for San Francisco.

While 1,958 single men were married to widowed or divorced women, only 1,450 single women were married to widowed or divorced men. In fact, only nine of the fifty-seven counties show exceptions to the rule that there are more unions of bachelors with widows than of maids with widowers.

In 1,342 instances, or 7.5 per cent of all, the marriage was the second or over of both parties. The per cent of marriages where both parties had been married before is particularly high for Southern California, especially outside Los Angeles, and for the bay counties other than San Francisco. Though among the eight minor geographic divisions, San Francisco has the lowest per cent of such marriages, yet the per cent is somewhat higher for the metropolitan area than for the rural counties of Northern and Central California.

Altogether 15,140 or 84.4 per cent of the grooms were single, 1,655 widowed, and 1,137 divorced; while of the brides 14,632 or 81.6 per cent were single, 1,891 widowed, and 1,409 divorced. The widows outnumber the widowers by 236 or 14.3 per cent, and among the divorced the women exceed the men by 272 or 23.9 per cent.

The per cent of widowers is particularly high only in Southern California, especially outside Los Angeles, but the per cent of widows is relatively high, not only in Southern California, but also in both the coast and interior counties of Northern California.

The per cent divorced, both among grooms and brides, is highest for the bay counties other than San Francisco, and next for Southern California, especially outside Los Angeles, being highest south of Tehachapi in Orange county.

Though the per cent of divorced brides is 7.9 for all California and only 7.4 for San Francisco, it is 8.9 for Alameda, 9.0 for Contra Costa, 14.1 for San Mateo, and 15.5 for Marin. It appears, therefore, that the tendency for residents of the metropolis to be married in suburban counties is particularly strong among divorcees.

County Totals.-Under the law of 1905 requiring County Recorders as local registrars to transmit to the State Registrar the original marriage certificates filed with them each month, 17,932 marriages were registered in the California State Bureau of Vital Statistics for 19051906. The total for the last half of 1905 was 8,338, against 9,594 for the first half of 1906.

Table 1, below, shows the counties for which at least 100 marriages were reported to the State Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1905-1906: 7

TABLE 1.-Rank of Counties with at Least 100 Marriages: 1905-1906.

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Despite the destruction of certificates for more than one half of April, 1906, and incomplete registration in the confusion following the great fire, San Francisco with 4,230 marriages properly registered contributes 23.6 per cent of the State total. The returns for Los Angeles cover little over half a year, the first certificates received having been for December, 1905. Complete returns for the whole twelve months would have made the total for Los Angeles county nearer that for San Francisco. In Alameda county, as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles, over 2,000 marriages were registered in 1905-1906.

With regard to the number of marriages registered, the counties fall into several groups. First, there is a group of 3 counties, each with over 2,000 marriages in the year; next comes another group of 3 counties, each with between 600 and 1,000 marriages in the year; then a group of 5, each with from 400 to 500 marriages; then a group of 6, with from 200 to 300 marriages; and then a group of 15 with from 100 to 200 marriages.

In addition to the 32 counties ranked in Table 1, there were 9 with from 50 to 100 marriages in the year, viz.: Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Merced, San Benito, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo, and Yuba; 10 with from 25 to 50 marriages, viz.: Colusa, Glenn, Inyo, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Modoc, Placer, Plumas, and Sutter; and 6 with less than 25 marriages each, viz.: Alpine, Del Norte, Mariposa, Mono, Sierra, and Trinity.

Marriage-rates. For the purpose of calculating marriage-rates, the population of California in 1905 has been estimated conservatively

according to the Census Bureau method by adding to the population in 1900 five tenths of the increase between 1890 and 1900, except that for the few counties showing decreases between the last two Federal censuses the population in 1900 has been taken for 1905, and for the three principal cities arbitrary estimates have been made because of their exceptionally rapid growth. The estimate for San Francisco in 1905 is 450,000, for Los Angeles, 180,000, and for Oakland, 90,000. As a bulk of the marriage returns for 1905-1906 were not affected by the public calamity in April, 1906, no estimates have been changed on account of temporary readjustments of population caused by the San Francisco

For convenience in tabulation, the fifty-seven counties of California have been grouped in three main and eight minor geographic divisions, which appear in Table 2, the counties in each group being arranged alphabetically for the sake of ready reference. Marriage-rates are also shown for the metropolitan area, comprising San Francisco and the other bay counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and San Mateo) in contrast with the rural counties of Northern and Central California. TABLE 2.—Estimated Population (1905), Marriages, and Marriage-rate per 1,000 Population, for Counties arranged Geographically: 1905–1906.

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TABLE 2.—Estimated Population (1905), Marriages, and Marriage-rate per 1,000 Population for Counties arranged Geographically: 1905-1906—Continued.

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*The 2,241 marriages for Los Angeles County include only 191 for 1905, against 2,050 for 1906, so that the registration is short by 1,800 or more. Corrected for this omission, the rate would be 11.1 for the State, 14.7 for Southern California, and 15.6 for Los Angeles.

It appears from Table 2 that for an estimated State population of 1,784,521 in 1905, the 17,932 marriages registered in 1905-1906 give a marriage-rate of 10.0 per 1,000 population, though complete returns for Los Angeles county would make the State rate 11.1 instead. The marriage-rate is higher for Southern California than for Northern and Central California together. In Northern as well as Central California the rate is higher for the coast counties than for the interior counties. The rate is also considerably higher for the metropolitan area, comprising San Francisco and the other bay counties, than for the rural counties north of Tehachapi.

Among the individual counties, Marin shows the highest marriage-rate, 36.4 per 1,000 population, followed by Orange 18.5, San Mateo 17.9, and Sacramento 17.0. The corrected rate for Los Angeles county, 15.6, would place it next in rank, followed by San Bernardino 14.4, Santa Clara 13.9, Alameda 13.4, Riverside, 13.2, San Diego 12.1, San Joaquin 11.7, Fresno, 11.4, Tulare 11.2, Santa Barbara 11.0, Stanislaus, 10.9,

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