CHAPTER V
THE URBAN AND RURAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION
OF VARIOUS STOCKS IN CANADA
It is important in studying assimilation to know which stocks tend to concentrate in
rural districts and those which congregate in urban parts. The influences of rural and
urban surroundings are in many respects quite different, and a study of the rural and
urban distribution of the various stocks and of the foreign born, will be seen to throw
considerable light on such questions as intermarriage. literacy, naturalization, infant mortal-
ity and many others.
Certain outstanding questions present themselves in this connection. First, what
peoples concentrate in urban districts and to what extent? Which stocks tend to congregate
in large cities? How do the stocks differ in their rural and urban distribution as between
provinces? Are the men or women more urban and whv? To the shove questions. and
to some others, this chapter suggests answers.
It might be mentioned in passing that there are two extreme conditions respecting
urban and rural distribution very unfavourable to the assimilation of the foreigner, First,
rural isolation, and secondly, the tendency too often observed in large cities, for particular
stocks to segregate in separate wards or districts. Consequently, in relating the material in
this section to the aspects of the assimilation problem discussed in the latter part of this
report, both of the above points should be kept clearly in mind.
In order to avoid a confusing multiplicity of figures attention is centred on the per-
centage urban throughout this section. A high percentage urban for a given stock naturally
implies a correspondingly low percentage in rural districts and vice versa. Such inferences as
a rule are left to the reader. The distinction between rural and urban js that followed
oy the census; “urban” ineludes those living in all incorporated cities, towns and villages,
while the balance of the population iz tabulated as * priral ?
PERCENTAGE OF URBAN RESIDENTS AMONG THE IMMIGRANT POPULATION
FOR CANADA AND THE PROVINCES
Table 51 gives the percentage urban of the immigrant population by countries of
birth for Canada and for each province. Tables 52 and 53 group the European born
other than British and French into geographical and linguistic classes, showing the percent~
age urban for the total population in each group. Finally. Table 54 resents a summary
ior specified groups of origins. “
Beginning with Canada as a whole, it is to be remembered that during the past three
or four decades there has been a radical shifting in the distribution of the population as
between urban and rural districts. Table 19 in Volume I of the Census shows that while
in 1891 only 31.80 pe. of the population was urban, by 1921 just under 50 p.c. lived in
incorporated cities, towns and villages. The change has been continuous throughout the
period. In this shifting of the population from rural to urban districts Canada is by no
means unique. The same change has characterized virtually all western nations to a greater
or less degree during the past century.
In Table 51, column 1, the foreign born in Canada appear with a lower percentage
urban than the population as a whole. Of the total population 49.52 p.c. were classed as
resident in urban districts in 1921 and of the foreign Jborn only 45.68 pe. Of all foreign
groups, the Asiatics show the most marked propensities for urban life. Some 65.50 p.e. of
those immigrants lived in urban districts. It is perhaps surprising to find the immigrants
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