ided therefore its
urban character, the higher, generally speaking and with many
individual exceptions, is the rate of growth."

The movement is then not merely to town life, but to large-town life.
The following diagram shows the rate of growth of the chief European
centres of population during the present century:--

[Illustration]

The figures relating to Germany are peculiarly instructive upon this
point:--

GERMANY--RATE OF INCREASE OF GOVERNMENT DISTRICTS.[272]

+-----------+------------------------------------+
| | Times in which such rate occurred. |
| Per Cent. |-----------------+------------------+
| | Town Districts. | Rural Districts. |
+-----------+-----------------+------------------+
| Increase. | | |
| 30 | 3 | -- |
| 25-30 | 2 | -- |
| 20-25 | 10 | 1 |
| 15-20 | 33 | 2 |
| 11-15 | 65 | -- |
| 9-11 | 55 | 4 |
| 5-9 | 50 | 35 |
| 3-5 | 8 | 69 |
| 1-3 | -- | 56 |
| 0-1 | 1 | 28 |
| Decrease. | | |
| 1-0 | 1 | 18 |
| 3-1 | -- | 22 |
| 5-3 | -- | 3 |
| 0-5 | -- | 4 |
+-----------+-----------------+------------------+

--------------------+------------+------------+------------------
German Empire. | 1871. | 1886. | Rate of Increase.
--------------------+------------+------------+------------------
Towns over 100,000 | 1,968,000 | 3,327,000 | 69 per cent.
" " 20,000 | 3,147,000 | 4,147,000 | 31 "
" " 5,000 | 4,588,000 | 5,694,000 | 24 "
" " 2,000 | 5,086,000 | 5,734,000 | 12 "
Rural Population | 26,219,000 | 26,318,000 | 3 "
--------------------+------------+------------+------------------

But the movement is by no means confined to the densely-populated
countries of Europe. If we turn to the "new world" we find it
illustrated still more remarkably. In the United States of America,
long before the population approached its present height, and while
large tracts of fert