PLAN  OF  NEW YORK AND   ITS  ENVIRONS
 

DENSITY OF POPULATION, ENTIRE AREA, 1920

IT IS important to note how the 9,000,000 people living in this area are dis¬
tributed. The map on page 9 indicates, by symbols, the average popula¬
tion per square mile in different parts of the district. The variations are
so great that it is impossible, in such a plan, to distinguish between densities
running over 100,000 to the square mile, which is the average for Manhattan
Island. The next greatest density indicated is from 10,000 to 30,000, this apply¬
ing to Kings, Bronx, and Hudson Counties. A surprisingly large part of the
area has an average of less than 200 people to the square mile, notwithstanding
the fact that towns of considerable size are included. Under this classification
fall all of Suffolk, Putnam, Dutchess, Orange, Morris, and Somerset Counties,
and portions of Nassau, Westchester, Fairfield, Bergen, Passaic, Middlesex, and
Monmouth Counties. A comparison of the relative density of population per
square mile in the rural areas, as indicated by the census enumerations made in
1850 and in 1920, discloses the somewhat startling fact that in a number of
towns, from 30 to 50 miles distant from the New York City Hall, the present
population per square mile is about half what it was in 1850, and in some cases
even less. These are not districts where the population appears to have been
displaced by the creation of large estates or by the acquisition of great tracts of
land for any public purpose, such as municipal water supplies. The fact seems
to show the tendency to concentration of population in large cities and towns.