TABLE 4.-The school enrollment of 1891-'92 classified by sex, and compared with the enrollment of the preceding year. Per cent of the male and of the female school popula tion enrolled. Males. Females. ENROLLMENT. Tables 3 and 4 give various facts relating to the common school enrollment, past and present. It appears that the total number of pupils enrolled on the school. registers during the school year 1891-'92, so far as can now be determined, was 13,205,877, or an average of 68.82 pupils for each 100 children of school age (5 to 18 years), as against 69.03 in 1890-'91. A consolidation of the gains and losses of one year shows a net increase of 203,238 pupils over the last preceding reports (in the case of most of the States over those of 1890-'91). This indicates a gain of 1.56 per cent, which is less than for several years past; the gain of 1890-'91 over 1889-'90, indeed, was 2.57 per cent. These figures seem to show that the increase in enrollment has not kept pace during the past year with the growth of the school population. Some of the State reports of enrollment are imperfect, however, and this loss of pupils as compared with the total number of children may be only apparent. Kentucky, for instance, shows (Table 4, Column 5) a loss of 36,627 pupils since 1890-'91; but Supt. Thompson, of that State, attributes this seeming loss to imperfect reports, and informs the Bureau that it is doubtful if there has been any real loss. The decrease of 10,018 pupils in Indiana may probably be explained in the same way. The increase in some of the States of the Western Division is phenomenal; Montana, Idaho, and Washington each increased their school enrollment by about one seventh, and Utah by nearly one-fifth (18.50 per cent). Sex. The attempt has been made in the present Report to classify the common school enrollment by sex. The result shows that in each section of the Union, as a rule, more boys are enrolled in the common schools than girls. This might have been expected from the fact that there is an excess of boys in the school population, 50-47 per cent of all the children from 5 to 18 years of age being boys (Table 1, Columns 3, 4, and 6). But it is further shown (Table 4, Columns 7 and 8) that in proportion to the total numbers of each sex more boys than girls are enrolled. Out of every 100 boys of school age in 31 States 68-42 are enrolled; girls, 67-48. The difference is slight, and may be due to the reluctance of parents to intrust their girls to the public schools at so early an age as their boys. Classification of pupils by age.-A knowledge of the ages of commonschool pupils is a great desideratum. Only three States, viz, Vermont, New Jersey, and North Carolina, furnish complete information upon this point. Several other States report the number of pupils above and below certain age limits. Using this information as a basis, an estimate has been made of the number of pupils of each year of age from 5 to 18, which is probably not grossly in error, and may serve for most purposes in lieu of more accurate figures. A corresponding esti mate was made of the whole number of children of each year of age. The results appear in the following table (Table 5), and are plotted in part in Diagram 2. DIAGRAM 2.-Showing for each year of age from 5 to 18 the whole number of children and the number enrolled in the common schools. (See Table 5.) 9 to 10 1,600,000 Number of Children. 1,400,000 Enrolled in TABLE 5.-Showing for each year of age from 5 to 18 the whole number of children and the number enrolled in the common schools. According to the above table, of the 13,205,877 common-school pupils in the United States, 10,608,800, or 80.33 per cent, are under 14 years of age. Indeed, it will appear from the diagram that the pupils begin to thin out very rapidly after reaching the thirteenth year. The maximum attendance is from 9 to 11 years of age. It is worthy of note that, according to this table, 90.6 per cent of the children from 10 to 11 years of age are enrolled in the common schools. As all persons who reach maturity pass through this age period, it is evident that, if this percentage remained constant from year to year, more than nine-tenths of the adult population of the United States (disregarding immigrants) would have received some degree of education in the common schools, the more so, in that many between 10 and 11 not in school now have attended school at an earlier age or will attend hereafter. Add to this number those who have received their education in private schools only, and making due allowance for duplicate registrations, there would remain only an inconsidera ble fraction of persons raised in this country who had never attended school at all. This well-nigh universal education is almost wholly voluntary. Probably not one child in a hundred is sent to school under compulsion of the law. Percentage of school population enrolled.-The number of pupils enrolled in each State at four different dates or epochs is given in Columns 2 to 5 of Table 3; and in Columns 6 to 9 is given for the same dates the percentage of school population enrolled. The number of pupils enrolled for every 100 children of school age has increased from 68.61 in 1889-'90 to 68.82 in 1891-'92. Diagram 3 shows graphically for each State the percentage of school population enrolled at the present time, the arrangement of States being in the order of magnitude in this particular.* Four have enrolled This diagram considers only the number of pupils whose names were entered on the school registers, without regard to the number of days they attended. DIAGRAM 3.—Showing graphically the percentage of the school population (5 to 18 years) enrolled in the common schools in 1891-92. (See Table 3, Column 9.) NOTE. This diagram has only to do with the number of pupils enrolled, without regard to their regularity of attendance or the length of the school term. 75.42 75.35 74.72 74.60 74.42 73.72 72.81 72.52 72.47 72.25 72.08 71.85 71.27 70.20 W. Va., S. Dak., Mich., Mont., Neb., Mo., N. Dak., Mass., N. Y., Utah, Conn., N. H, Wis., Pa., Fla., Del., Texas, Idaho, Ky., Md., D. C., N. J., R. I., Wyo., |