note the size of the task.

According to the census of 1920, 50,866,899 people in the United
States lived in rural territory, that is, in communities of less than
2,500 population. This was 48.1 per cent of the total. For the first
time in the history of the country the records showed a larger
proportion of the total population living in urban centers than in
villages or in the open country. The population in incorporated
villages of less than 2,500 population was 9,864,196, or 9.3 per cent
of the total, while that in unincorporated or open country communities
was 41,002,703 or 38.8 per cent, as compared with 8.8 per cent and
44.8 per cent respectively in 1910.

The total rural population increase was but 1,518,986, or 3.1 per
cent. Incorporated village increase was 1,745,371, or 21.5 per cent,
while the unincorporated community population actually decreased
227,355, or .6 per cent.

These figures indicate two conclusions of importance to our
discussion. The first is that the villages of less than 2,500
inhabitants are sharing with the large centers in the general increase
in population. Their increase proportionately is not so marked as is
that of the extremely large centers, but it is sufficiently marked to
indicate that they offer opportunities that attract more than does the
open country. This village growth must be reckoned with in determining
policies of location of church buildings and the type of local church
program for community service.

The second conclusion is that the open country is still at a
disadvantage so far as its possibilities of supporting a large
population are concerned. Actual depopulation of the open country, the
enlargement of the size of farms, the abandonment of acreage once
under cultivation, which preliminary figures issued by the Census
Bureau indicate, show that not yet is the demand for agricultural
products such as to make a much larger open country population
possible. This fact also points the direction for readjustment of
rural community life.

The data from the religious census of the United States, taken in
1916, while not classified as rural and urban, give hopeful figures as
to the progress of religious institutions in this country. While the
total population of the United States increased during the decade
1910-20, 14.9 per cent, the church membership from 1906-1916 increased
19.6 per cent. The total church membership increase, 6,858,796, was
50.2 per cent of 13,710,842