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Vol. 11, No. 4, December 1973 - "Blacks in Pennsylvania"


(pp. 3 - 11)

George A. Schnell 

State University College - New Paltz

New Paltz, New York


Abstract

From 1960 to 1970 the black population of the United States increased by almost 20 percent, from less than 19 million to more than 22.5 million. The nation's white population increased by less than 12 percent during the same period. Differential growth and shifts in distribution of black inhabitants among census regions and divisions, as well as among the states and their subdivisions, have been dynamic for many decades. In this study, such trends are examined in Pennsylvania where, as Table 1 describes, the number of black inhabitants increased by more than 19 percent. The growth of white population, while superior numerically, was inferior relatively, at 2.7 percent.



(pp. 12 - 18)

Mark S. Monmonier
Syracuse University 

Syracuse, New York


Abstract

Human populations possess many and varied traits. Population scholars are interested in income, socioeconomic status, employment characteristics, educational attainment, marital status, place of residence, mobility, mortality, fertility, racial composition, and age-sex structure, to name a few. These population attributes can be studied in two ways. First, survey data, usually taken from a randomly selected fraction of the population, permit useful analyses at the individual, family, or household level. However, this information is commonly devoid of references to specific places and, thus, does not allow the researcher to link spatial variations of population characteristics to other geographical distributions. Determining and explaining this spatial covariation is the second principal method of analysis and has been termed "population geography" and the "distributional approach to demography." Instead of depending primarily on survey data, the population geographer uses information collected for areal units, such as census blocks, census tracts, cities, counties, states, or countries, and attempts to establish cause-effect relationships between population traits and other socioeconomic, cultural, or physical variables. Another use of this areally aggregated data is the delimitation of homogeneous regions whose pattern might further illuminate the processes responsible for place-to-place differences in population traits.



(pp. 19 - 25)

Vincent P. Miller, Jr. 
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Indiana, Pennsylvania


Abstract

The terms integration and segregation are now a standard part of the American vocabulary. As everyone knows, closeness in the racial relations has been a consideration in selecting one's residence for a score of years. In this respect some neighborhoods seem more "stable" than others, that is some areas are apparently able to "maintain" themselves through a practice of de facto segregation. Expressed in different terms, if the attitudes of defacto segregation are assumed to be fundamental to the development of a regional class system in America (perhaps similar in that it is regionalized to the concept of apartheid as practiced in South Africa), then it should be possible to identify socio-economic criteria that can be used related to such change and stability.



(pp. 26 - 32)

Roman A. Cybriwsky and Kenneth C. Meyer
Temple University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Abstract

This paper reports on preliminary research on the spatial distribution of the elderly, black population of Philadelphia. Our concern is to identify areas within Philadelphia's extensive black concentrations where large numbers of persons aged 65 and older reside, and to discuss the implications of the distribution pattern. Our data come from the 1960 and 1970 U.S. Censuses of Population, and are aggregated by census tracts. A portion of the paper is a multiple regression analysis wherein the 1970 distribution of elderly blacks is compared to that of eleven socio-economic variables.



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