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Document Type
Text
Contributing Institution
Prince Memorial Library
Publication Date
2007
Publisher
The Author
City
Cumberland, Maine
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Bennett, Thomas C., "Vital Statistics, Historical Demography and Population Change in Cumberland, Maine: Vital Records as Source Documents for Local History" (2007). Cumberland Books. 58.
https://digitalmaine.com/cumberland_books/58
Rights Statement
No Copyright - United States. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.
Description
Vital Statistics, Historical Demography and Population Change in Cumberland, Maine: Vital Records as Source Documents for Local History uses vital statistics to present a historical demographical profile of the town of Cumberland, Maine, during the first half of the 20th century. The compilation of natality, mortality and marital data appearing in the 1893 through 1960 Annual Reports of the Town of Cumberland resulted in the publication of 69 years’ worth of the life events of the residents of one small Maine community. The Cumberland data, when analyzed from an historical demographical perspective, appeared to produce statistical evidence that sharply contrasted the community with the state as a whole. Differences between the town and the state were noted in live birth rate, death rate, median age at death, and population growth rates. Further analysis, however, revealed that the statistics culled from the town’s reporting of the life events of its residents were skewed, due in large part to assigning births and deaths to place of occurrence rather than the usual place of residence of the individual. Although this revelation altered the initial interpretation somewhat, it did not detract significantly from the demographical view of Cumberland presented by the data, which was of a town that was losing residents and had an older, less fecund populace than the state for much of the first half of the 20th century. In the end, Cumberland, partly due to its location, attracted new and younger residents, who helped the town arrest its population decline and contributed to it becoming the vibrant and desirable community it is today.