where one-half of this class were married. The subsequent diminution
in the proportion of this class is explained by the increase in the pro-
portion of widowed, as will be shown later. The maximum propor-
tion of those living together by mutual consent occurred between the
ages of 35 and 44 years, where it reached one-fifth of the total number.
Among colored males the maximum proportion occurred, as among
the white males, between the ages of 55 and 64, and the maximum
among those living together by mutual consent between 35 and 44
years. Among the colored females the maximum among the married
was found between 35 and 44 years, and of those living together by
mutual consent at about the age of 30.
The map opposite this page shows the proportion which those in con-
sensual unions bore to the married in various parts of Porto Rico. A
study of it shows that the consensual unions were relatively most numer-
ous in the eastern and southeastern parts of the island, especially on
CENSUS OF PORTO RICO 1899.
00 1*
55 " I
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3 3
q *
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z
-1 . k^_,i
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o > ~*
c
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5 ^ X'^'fir-' ^Jo Y
CONJUGAL CONDITION.
71
the eastern half of the south coast. Of the total number of municipal
districts in the island, 35 contained a larger proportion of consensual
unions than the average of the island, and in 9 municipal districts
consensual unions were more numerous than lawful marriages.
THE WIDOWED.
Of the inhabitants of Porto Rico, 4. 9 per cent, or nearly one in twenty,
were widowed. The proportion of widowed among native whites (5.3
per cent) was greater than the average of the island, and that of the
colored (4.1 per cent) considerably less. This is due to the fact, as
shown above, that consensual unions were more numerous relatively
among the colored, and that upon the dissolution of such union by the
death of one of the members the other became classed with single
rather than with widowed.
The widowed native white males formed 2.8 per cent only of the
population, and the widowed native white females not less than 7.7
per cent. The corresponding figures for the colored were, for males
4.1, and for females 6 per cent.
The following table shows the distribution of the widowed by race,
sex, and age:
Age period.
Native
white
males.
Native
white
females.
Colored
males.
Colored
females.
15 to 19 years
1
0.1
0.2
20 to 24 years
0.4
1.1
0.2
0.9
25 to 29 vears
1.5
3 6
9
2.3
30 to 34 years . .
2.7
7.5
1.9
5.0
35 to 44 years
6.2
16.4
4.0
12.4
45 to 54 years
10.6
33.9
8.8
25.9
55 to 64 years
19.2
51.0
15.1
38.1
65+ years
30.6
65.7
23.8
48.5
As will be seen, the proportion of widowed increased steadily with
advancing age among all classes. It reached in the native white males
30.6 per cent at the oldest age, and among the colored males 23.8 per
cent, while among females it reached 65.7 per cent among the native
whites and 48. 5 per cent among the colored. There was here, there-
fore, as elsewhere, a much larger proportion of widowed among
females than among males. This excess is in part due to the fact that
the death rate is greater as an average, among married couples, with
men than with women, on account of the greater average age of the
husband, and in part to the fact that more men remarry than women,
and, to a considerable extent at least, select single women rather than
widows.
EDUCATION.
As far as history throws any light on the subject, it would appear
that prior to the year 1799 there were no schools in Porto Rico, outside
of the cities of San Juan and San German, which had free schools for
girls, where needlework and the catechism of the Catholic Church were
72 REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF PORTO RICO, 1899.
taught, a class in philosophy established by the Dominican monks, and
a few private schools attended by the children of the wealthier citizens.
During the next fort} 7 years a number of private schools and a few
colleges were opened, but it was not until 1845 that public primary
schools were provided for. For a full account of education in Porto
Rico the reader is referred to Senate Document 363, Fifty-sixth Con-
gress, publishing the report of Gen. George W. Davis, Military Gov-
ernor of the island.
The system was the same as that of Spain, which is fully described
in the Report of the Census of Cuba.
On June 30, 1898, there were in existence in Porto Rico 380 public
schools for boys, 148 for girls, 1 for adults, and 26 private schools,
having an enrollment of 44,861 pupils. The total amount annually
expended, including the subsidy granted by the insular government to
private schools, was 309,810.75 pesos, or $185,886.45.
At the end of the school year 1899 there were 525 public schools,
having a total attendance of 21,873 pupils, at a cost of $203,373. The
number of children of school age at that time without school facilities
was 268,630.
Gen. Guy V. Henry, U. S. A., who succeeded General Brooke as
Military Governor, took an early interest in education, and on May 1
established a code of school laws which provided for school boards in
all municipal districts in which schools were in operation and abol-
ished many of the 'evils of the Spanish school system, as, for example,
the payment of fees by parents who could afford it, and the teaching of
religion and church doctrine. He established a teachers' manual and
free text-books, graded the schools, and made provision for high
schools, and the necessary professional schools.
Under Gen. George W. Davis these laws were carefully revised and
modified by the introduction of many beneficial changes suggested by
experience.
On August 12, 1899, General Davis substituted for the bureau of
education an insular board of education having general charge of
public instruction. The first public school building was erected under
his supervision in 1899 in the city of San Juan. Others will doubtless
follow as funds become available in the various municipalities.
As in Cuba, no subject is of greater importance to the inhabitants of
these islands than the education of the children who will in time be
called on to perform the duties and assume the full responsibilities of
citizenship.
LITERACY.
[See Tables XVII and XIX.]
A census can take cognizance of the degree of education of a people
only as it is indicated by certain simple tests, which refer usually to
formal or book education, not because that is necessarily the most
LITERACY.
73
important, but because it is the most easily tested. The tests used by
the present census were attendance at school, ability to read, ability to
write, and possession of higher education. It is obvious that attend-
ance at school certifies nothing regarding a person's educational
attainments, yet if the entire population is to be classed according to
degree of education some assumption must be made regarding children
attending school. It can not introduce serious error to give such chil-
dren the benefit of the doubt and assume that all of them were able to
read and write, but that all under 10 years of age and not attending
school were not able to read. On these assumptions the population of
Porto Rico may be classed as follows:
Persons in Porto Rico
Number.
Per cent
of total.
With higher education ..
5,045
0.5
Able to read and write
143, 472
15.0
Able to read . . .
158,852
16.6
Population answering educational questions
951,836
100.0
In the preceding table the classes are not mutually exclusive, but
each succeeding class includes all those in the preceding. From this
table the following may be derived by taking the differences in the
successive numbers of the preceding:
Persons in Porto Rico
Number.
Per cent.
With higher education
5 045
5
Able to write, but without higher education
138, 427
14 5
Able to read, but unable to write
15,380
1.6
Unable to read
792 984
83 2
Not stated
1,407
2
Total
953 ->-43
100
From this table it appears that the three classes of those able to
read, but unable to write, those with higher education, and those not
answering the educational questions, including together less than one-
fortieth of the total population, were numerically insignificant.
Attention, therefore, may be centered on the other two classes. The
several departments of Porto Rico had the following numbers and
proportions of persons able to read:
Department.
Popula-
tion.
Able to read.
Number.
Per cent.
Aguadilla
99,645
162,308
88,501
12, 277
20, 030
12,222
16,730
36,359
33,740
27,494
12.3
12.3
13.8
14.9
17.8
21.0
21.5
Arecibo
Humacao
Guayama
111,986
203, 191
160,046
127,566
Ponce
Bayamon
Mayaguez
Porto Rico
953,243
158,852
16.6
74
REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF PORTO RICO, 1899.
In the whole island about one person in six is able to read. The
seven departments fall into two groups, four in which the percentage
of persons able to read is below the average of the island, and three
in which it is above. These three, it will be seen, are those which
contain the three cities of Mayaguez, Ponce, and San Juan. It is
likely, therefore, that ability to read is more prevalent among the
inhabitants of these cities than in the rural districts. The following
table presents the facts on this point:
City.
Popula-
tion.
Able to read.
Number.
Per cent.
Mavaguez .
15, 187
27, 1)52
32,048
7,826
12,934
16,618
51.5
46.2
51.8
Ponce
San Juan
Total cities . .
75, 187
878,056
37, 378
121,474
49.7
13.8
Rest of island
This table shows that in the three cities of Porto Rico about half the
population are able to read, a proportion nearly four times that in the
rest of the island. Accordingly it seems fairer to compare the three
departments containing these cities with the other four only after the
urban population has been excluded. This is done in the following
table:
Department.
Rural
popula-
tion.
Able to read.
Number.
Per cent.
Bavamon
127,998
112,379
175,239
17,122
19,668
23,425
13.4
17.5
13.4
Mavaguez
Ponce
This table, supplementing that on page 73, shows that outside the
large cities ability to read is much more general in the department of
Mayaguez than in any other, and that next to this come the two
departments at the eastern end of the island, Guayama and Hutuacao,
while the two northwestern departments, Aguadilla and Arecibo, have
the smallest proportion of persons able to read. This result is sur-
prising in that it shows that the departments containing a very high
proportion of colored (p. 59) have also a large proportion of literates,
while the departments containing the largest proportion of whites are
those in which illiteracy is most common. From an examination of the
table showing by departments the proportion of population living in
cities of 1,000 inhabitants and over (p. 44), it appears that those depart-
ments with the smallest population able to read are just the ones which
have the smallest proportion of urban population, while Guayama has,
after Bavamon, the highest proportion of urban population, and
Humacao has a proportion decidedly higher than that for either
Aguadilla or Arecibo. It seems probable, therefore, that the proper-
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
75
tion of population residing in the smaller cities exercises more influence
than the proportion of whites in determining 1 the proportion of literates.
The following figures show the returns of literacy at the censuses of
1860 and 1887 as compared with the present:
Census.
Popula-
tion.
Number
able to
read.
Per cent
able to
read.
I860
583,181
81,888
8.8
1887
806,708
111,380
13.8
1899
953,243
158,852
16.6
These figures show that the proportion of literates in the total popula-
tion has increased from 8 to 16 per cent in forty years. Notwithstand-
ing this slight increase, the proportion of illiterates in Porto Rico is
higher than in any of the states of this Union or any of the other
West Indian islands. Guatemala is the only country in the region for
which statistics are obtainable, where the proportion of illiterates is
higher than in Porto Rico.
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
[See Tables XVII and XX.]
The total number of persons attending school in Porto Rico during
the year preceding November 10, 1899, was 26,212, or between 2 and 3
per cent of the total population. But in the discussion on age it was
shown (p. 49) that the children in Porto Rico between 5 and 15 years
old, and so at the age when school attendance is most common, were
unusually numerous. Hence it is better to compare the children
attending school with those of school age. From Table XX (p. 267) it
appears that only 414 children under 5 or over 17 years of age attended
school that is, about 1.5 per cent of the entire number. The school
age ma3 T therefore be assumed to be 5-17, and the slight proportion of
persons over or under these limits neglected.
X umber and per cent of children attending school.
Country.
Population
5-17.
Persons 5-17 attend-
ing school.
Number.
Per cent.
Porto Rico
322,393
25,798
8.0
It has already been shown that the proportion of persons able to
read, and probabty also the proportion of children attending school,
was much higher in the cities of Porto Rico than in the rural districts.
In the following table the facts for the two cities included in Table XX
are given.
76
REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF PORTO RICO, 1899.
Number and per cent of school children in cities.
City.
Population
5-17.
Persons 5- 17 attend-
ing school.
Number.
Percent.
Ponce
7,904
8,886
1,877
1,901
1
23.7
21.3
San Juan
Total
16,790
3,778
22.5
On the average in the two cities less than one-fourth of the children
5 to 17 attended school during the year preceding the census. If the
figures for these two cities be subtracted from all Porto Rico, the
following results are reached:
Number and per cent of school children in rural districts.
Region.
Population
5-17.
Persons 5-17 attend-
ing school.
Number.
Per cent.
Porto Rico outside two cities of 25 000
305,603
22,020
7. -2
In the rural districts of Porto Rico less than one-fifteenth of the
children between 5 and 17 years of age attended school during the
year preceding the census, but in the large cities the proportion was ;i
little more than three times as great.
In the following table the figures are given for the seven depart-
ments after the two large cities have been excluded:
Number and per cent of school children in rural districts, by departments.
Department.
Population
5-17.
Persons 5-17 attend-
ing school.
Number.
Per cent.
Arecibo .. .
56,388
60,369
33,766
44,817
30,038
38,637
41,688
3,313
3,604
2,0%
3,150
2,361
3,228
4,268
6.8
5.9
6.2
7.0
7.8
8.3
10.2
Ponce
Aguadilla
Bavamon
Humacao
Guayama
Mavaguez
Porto Rico
305,603
22,020
7.2
The conspicuous position of Mayaguez agrees with the results of
the analysis regarding ability to read (p. 74). but in the present table
the position of this department is influenced by the inclusion of the
city of Mayaguez. Here, too, one notices that the proportion of
children attending school, like the proportion of literates, is lowest in
the two northwesterly departments, where the proportion of whites
is highest, while the two departments of Humacao and Guayama
coine next to Mayaguez in the proportion of children attending
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
77
school, notwithstanding the fact that about half of their population is
colored.
That there is a rough correlation between the rank of the depart-
ments in the order of school attendance and in the order of literacy,
appears from the following lists:
Departments in the order of
fterearing literacy:
Arecibo.
Ponce.
Aguadilla.
Bayamon.
Humacao.
Guayama.
Mayaguez.
Increasing school attendance:
Aguadilla.
Arecibo.
Bayamon.
Ponce.
Humacao.
Guayama.
Mayaguez.
/School attendants classified by sex. The following table gives the
facts for Porto Rico by sex:
Number and per cent of school children by sex.
Sex.
Population
5-17.
Persons 5-]
ing sc
Number.
7 attend-
hool.
Per cent.
Male
162,838
159,555
15,273
10,525
9.3
6.5
Female
Total .
322,393
25,798
8.0
The proportion of males attending school is much higher than that
of females, and so great a difference in this respect is unusual.
School attendants classified by age. In the following table the pro-
portion of school attendants in the several age classes is given:
Number and per cent of school children by age.
Age period.
Population.
School at-
tendants.
Per cent
attend-
ing
school.
0-4...
150,403
209
0.1
5-9
143,546
10,254
7.1
10-14
124,353
14,492
11.6
15-17
54,494
1,052
1.9
18+...
480 447
aoc
Total
953,243
26,212
2.7
The one noticeable feature of the preceding table is the relatively
small proportion of children between 5 and 10 years of age who were
attending school, and the sharp maximum in the proportion for the
age period 10-14. In Cuba the proportions of children of these two
age periods attending school are more nearly alike.
78
REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF PORTO RICO, 1899.
School atteiid<i /it* <-l<ixxifit'd Inj ritcv. The following table gives the
facts regarding- school attendance for Porto Rico, by race:
Number and per cent of school children, by race.
Race.
Population
5-17.
Persons 517 attend-
ing school.
Number.
Per cent.
White
196,%1
125,432
17,516
8,282
8.8
6.6
Colored
Total
322,393
25,798
8.0
The proportion of colored children attending school is slightly less
than the proportion of white children, but the difference between the
two races in this regard is comparative!} 7 slight.
In the following table the proportion of school attendants for each
race is given by departments:
Department.
Per cent of school
attendants among
children 5 to 17
years old.
White.
Colored.
Aguadilla
6.0
6.1
8.8
10.3
11. 1
11.1
11.9
7.2
5.1
6.7
5.7
7.7
5.5
7.3
Arecibo
Ponce
Hivmarno
Bftyamnn . .
fJiifiyfunft
Mayagnez
The proportions of school attendants in the several departments do
not vary for the two races in the same way. In Arecibo both races
have few children in school and in Mayaguez both have many, but in
Aguadilla, relatively to the other departments, there are few white and
many colored school children, and in Guayarna there are many white
and few colored. Hence school attendance among the two races must
be influenced by somewhat different conditions.
LITERACY AMONG PERSONS OVER TEN YEARS OF AG3.
[See Tables XVII and XVIII.]
It is hardly accurate to include infants with the illiterate, even though
they can not read, for the word "illiterate'' implies that the person
has advanced at least out of infancy into childhood. Hence it is the
usual practice for a census in gathering information on this topic to
disregard all children under a specified age. This has not been done
in the censuses of Spain or of the Spanish colonies, but in American
census practice all children under ten are omitted from the illiteracy
till les. Such a classification is made in the present census of Porto
Kico, and will be regarded in the following discussion. For reasons
already explained, only two classes will !>c considered those who are
CENSUS OF PORTO RICO 1899.
o
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LITERACY.
79
and those who are not able to read.
facts for all Porto Rico:
The following table gives the
Class.
Population
10+.
Per cent
149, 796
22.7
509,498
77.3
Total
659,294
100.0
About one-fourth of the population of Porto Rico, excluding young
children, were able to read, a proportion decidedly less than that in
any American state.
The following table shows for the several departments the number
and proportion of persons able to read. The departments are arranged
in the order of increasing proportion of literates.
Department.
Total popu-
lation
10+.
Persons
able to
read.
Per cent
able to
read.
Aguadilla
68,307
11,454
16.8
Arecibo .
110,832
18,7%
17.0
Humacao
60.539
11,574
19.1
Guavama
75,750
15,497
20.5
Ponce
141,901
34,390
24.2
Mavaguez
91,052
25,931
28.5
Bavamon
110, 913
32,154
29.0
Porto Rico
659,294
149, 7%
22.7
Here, as in the previous discussion, it appears that the part of the
island most imperfectly provided with school facilities, and offering
the least evidence of even elementary educational attainments, is in the
northwest Aguadilla and Arecibo. The three departments having the
highest proportion of persons able to read are the departments con-
taining cities of some size.
The per cent of persons over 10 who were able to read has also been
computed for each municipal district and will be found graphically
represented on the map facing this page. While it is not worth while
to present here the figures for each district, since they can readily be
computed from the data in Table XVII, it may be of interest to present
the ratios for a few districts having the largest and smallest propor-
tions of literates. The first five and last five districts in this respect
were as follows:
Municipal district.
Per cent of
persons
10+ able
to read.
Municipal district.
Per cent of
persons
10+ able
to read.
San Juan
63.7
Aguada
12 4
Mavaguez. ..
41 6
Moca
12 2
JIayaqucz city
61.3
Piedras . .
11 7
Ponce
38 3
11 3
Ponce city
55.5
Rincon . .
9 9
Vieques
30 8 I 1
1 Guavama
29.8 I 1
80 BEPORT ON THE CENSUS OF POKTo RICO, 1899.
The preceding figures show clearly the degree to which the elements
of education are confined to the cities of Porto Rico. Each of the
three cities has a percentage of persons over 10 able to read, almost
twice as high as the highest of the 66 municipal districts not contain-
ing a large city. As nearly L'.oOO years ago the elements of Chris-
tianity spread first through the cities of the Roman Empire, while
the inhabitants of the villages and rural districts clung to the earlier
faith until the residents of the village (pagus) or of the country (heath)
came to be identified as pagans and heathen with the believers in the
religion that was passing away, so at the present time in Porto Rico
and Cuba the elements of education seem to have spread mainly or